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HASSAN 



COLLECTED POEMS OF 
JAMES ELROY FLECKER 

Introduction by J. C. Squire 

"Flecker's poetry has the stress of fire and storm 
as well as the note of quiet meditation. But it has 

something more a felt challenge and directness. 

a sincere doubt and sturdy questioning of life it- 
self .... The motivating impulse of his work is 
to be found in his single-eyed quest for truth and 
beauty." 

— The New York Times 

NEW YORK: ALFRED ■ A ■ KNOPt 



HASSAN 



The Story of Hassan of Bagdad, and how 

he came to make the Golden Journey to 

Samarkand 



A Play in Five Acts 



By 
JAMES ELROY FLECKER 




New York 

Alfred • A • Knopf 

1922 



COPYRIGHT, 1922, BY 
ALFRED A. KNOPF, Inc. 



Published, September, 19SS 



^^'A 
.^'^f^ 



All right! reserved under the International Copyright Act. Perform- 
ances forbidden and right of representation reserved. Application for 
the right of performing this play must be made to A. P. Watt and 
Son, Hastings House, 10 Norfolk Street, London, England. 



,1( 



1 






Set up and printed bu the Vuit-Ballou Co.. Binuhamton, X. Y. 

Paper furnished bu W. F. Ether ing ton i Co.. A'cw York, N. Y. 

Bound bv the H. Wolff Estate. New York. N. Y. 



MANUFACTURED IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA 



OCT 11 '22 

CUG86231 



I 



HASSAN 



CHARACTERS 



Hassan, a Confectioner. 
The Caliph Hakoun Al-Rashid. 
IsHAK, his Minstrel. 
Jafar, his Vizier. 
Masrur, his Executioner. 
Rafi, King of the Beggars. 
Selim, a Friend of Hassan's. 
The Captain of the Military. 
The Chief of the Police. 

. ' Y Nondescripts. 
Abduj 

Alder, 

Willow, [-Slaves. 
Tamarisk 



The Porter of Yasmin's 

House. 
The Chinese Philosopher. 
A Dervish. 

The Fountain Ghost. 
A Herald. 
The Prison Guards. 
Pervaneh. 
Yasmin. 



An Ambassador, a Wrestler, a Caligraphtst, a Jester, 
Ghosts, Mutes, Dancing Women, Beggars, Soldiers, Police, 
Attendants and Casual Loiterers. 



THE STORY OF HASSAN OF BAGDAD 

ACT I 

Scene I 

A room "behind the shop" in old Bagdad. In the back- 
ground a large caldron steaming, for the shop is a 
sweet-stuff shop and the sugar is boiling. The room 
has little furniture beyond a carpet, old but unex- 
pectedly choice, and some Persian hangings {geomet- 
rical designs, with crude animals and some verses 
from the Koran Jiand-printed on linen). A ram- 
shackle wooden partition in one corner shuts off 
from the living room what appears to be the shop. 
Squatting on the carpet — facing each other: 

Hassan, the Confectioner, 45, rotund, moustache, tur- 
ban, greasy grey dress. 
Selim, his friend, young, vulgarly handsome, gaudily 
clothed. 

Hassan 
{Rocking on his mat) Eywallah, Eywallah. 

Selim 
Thirty-seven times have you made the same remark, 
father of repetition. 

Hassan 

{More dolefully than ever) Eywallah, Eywallah! 

1 



2 HASSAN ACT 1 

Selim 

Have you caught fever? Is your chest narrow, or 
your belly thunderous? 

Hassan 
{With a ponderous sigh) Ey wallah! 

Selim 
Is that the merchant of sweetmeats, that sour face? 
poisoner of children, surely it would be better to cut 
the knot of reluctance and uncord the casket of explana- 
tion. And the Poet Antari has justly remarked: 

Divide your sorrow and impart your grief, fool. 
That good nian comforteth beyond belief, fool. 

Hassan 
{Inclining towards the mat) None is good, save God. 
And Abou Awas has excellently sung: 

The importunate 
Are seldom fortunate. 

Nevertheless, know, Selim, that I am in love. 

Seum 
In love! Then why sit moaning on the mat? Are 
there not beauties at the barbers, and lights of love at 
the bazaar? 

Hassan 

(Angrily) Hold your tongue, Selim, or leave me. I 

was in earnest when I said I loved, and your coarseness 

is ill-fitting to my mood. And well I know I am Hassan, 

the Confectioner, yet I can love as sincerely as Mejnun; 



ACT I HASSAN 3 

for assuredly she on whom my heart is bent is not less 
fair than Leila. 

Selim 

(Ironically) Alas! I mistook the particular for the 
general, and did not recognize the purity of your inten- 
tions. But I would not mention Mejnun. Mejnun was 
young, and you are old, and he was a prince, and you 
are a confectioner, and he was beautiful, and you are not, 
and he was very thin because of his sorrow, and you are 
fatter than those four-legged I mention not — God curse 
their herdsmen! 

Hassan 

And if it be as you say, Selim, if I am indeed a fat, 
old, ugly tradesman, have I not good reason to be sorry 
and rock upon my mat, for how shall I attain my heart's 
desire? 

Selim 

Listen to me, Hassan, why is it that in this last year 
you have become different from the Hassan that was 
Hassan? From time to time you talk strangely in your 
cups, like a mad poet; and you have bought a lute and 
a carpet too fine for your house. And now I fear you 
are losing your senses when I hear this talk of love from 
one who is past the age of folly. 

Hassan 

It may be so, young man. Indeed, I think I am a 
fool. It is the affliction of Allah. 



4 HASSAN ACT I 

Selim 

Tell me, at least, who she is. It may be she is not 
so unattainable as you imagine, unless indeed you have 
set eyes on the Caliph's daughter, or on the Queen of all 
the Jinn. 

Hassan 
Listen, Selim, and I will tell you my affair. Three 
days ago a woman came here to buy loukoum of me, 
dressed as a widow, and bade me follow her to her door 
with the parcel. Alas, Selim! I could see her eyes 
beneath the veil, and they were like the twin fountains 
in the Caliph's garden; and her lips beneath her veil 
were like roses hidden in moss, and her waist was flexible 
as a palm tree swaying in the wind, and her hips were 
large and heavy and round, like water melons in the 
season of water melons. And I glanced at her but she 
would not smile, and I sighed but she would not glance, 
and the door of her house shut fast against me, like the 
gate of Paradise against an infidel. Ey wallah! 

(Recommences moaning) . 

Selim 

And where was the house of this widow who bought 
sweetmeats and had none to sell? 

Hassan 
In the street of Felicity, by the fountain of the Two 
Pigeons. 

Selim 
(Musing) It must be the widow of that Achmet they 
hung last year by the Basra Gate. 



ACT I HASSAN 5 

Hassan 
Which Achmet? 

Selim 
The hairy one. 

Hassan 
IstagfaruUah! He fluttered like a bird. May I never 
soar so high. 

Selim 
IstagfaruUah! May I see you! I should burst 
with laughter and the vultures with repletion. But tell 
me, you who have fallen so deep in love, do you rejoice 
in your misfortune like a dervish in his dirt, or do 
you honestly desire satisfaction? 

Hassan 
I desire satisfaction, Selim. But I pray you, talk 
no more of this. 

Selim 
Well, take courage, faint heart, since all things can 
be cured save perversity in asses. Perhaps I can cure 
you of love. 

Hassan 
By the prophet, Selim, do not cure my love, cure her 
indifference. 

Seum 
{With sudden alertness) There is only one way of 
doing that. 



HASSAN ACT I 

Hassan 



Which way? 



Selim 
Do you believe in magic, Hassan? 

Hassan 

Men who think themselves wise believe nothing till 
the proof. Men who are wise believe anything till 
the disproof. 

Selim 
What do we know if magic be a lie or not? But, 
since it is certain that only magic can avail you, you 
may as well put it to the test. You can buy a philtre 
that can draw her love, and send her a jar of magic 
sweets. 

Hassan 

I am ready to all things, ingenious Selim; but do 
you know a good magician? 

Selim 
Zachariali, the Jew, has but lately arrived from 
Aleppo: he is the talk of all the market-place, and a 
wonderful man if tales be true. 

Hassan 
Have you the tales? 

Selim 
I have this among many. They say that in Bokhara 



ACT I HASSAN 7 

a man called him an offensive Jew and flung a stone 
at his head: and he caused the stone to be suspended 
in the air and the man too, so that the man walked all 
round Bokhara over the heads of the passers-by, who 
were astonished, and was constrained to enter his house 
by the upper window. 

Hassan 
{Incredulous ) Mashallah ! 

Selim 
And stranger than that. At Ispahan men say he 
took off the dome of the Great Mosque and turned it 
round and had a bath in it, and put it back again. 

Hassan 

Mashallah! 

Selim 
And strangest of all, at Cairo, for the amusement of 
the Sultan, he turned the whole population into apes 
for half an hour. 

Hassan 
A very trifling change if you knew the Egyptians. 
I don't believe a word of all these tales. Yet, doubt- 
less he is good enough physician to make a love philtre. 
But are philtres any good? 

Selim 

There can be no doubt that there are philtres which 
drive women to love, though their hearts be as strong 



8 HASSAN ACT I 

and their heads as cold as the mountains of Qaf. 
But as for this Zachariah, I know he sells philtres at 
ten dinars the bottle: his shop is crowded with rich 
old women. 

Hassan 

Eywallah, Selim, I am sick of love; no damsel is 
worth ten dinars. And sages have remarked, "The 
ideal is expensive!" and philosophers have observed, 
''There are a thousand figs on the fig tree and all 
as like as like." 

Selim 

What! All the smooth, shining hills and well-wooded 
valleys in that country of love ... all going for ten 
dinars! . . , And this is the man whose love is like 
Mej nun's! What is ten dinars to a man in love? You 
gave thrice that sum for this carpet. 

Hassan 
A carpet is a carpet, and a woman is a woman. It 
is not only the ten dinars. But you know that in this 
market I have a character. "Hassan," men say, "is a 
safe man. Hassan will not leave his jacket on the 
wall, or buy peas without prodding the sack." But if 
they hear: "A stranger came to Bagdad and no Mussul- 
man and said he would do this, and Hassan has paid 
him ten dinars and got no gain," they will nudge each 
other when I walk abroad at evening, and say: "A sad 
end"; and another, "Look at him, Saadet, my son, and 
drink no Avine"; and another, "God preserve me from 
the friends of such a one!" And they will call out to me 



ACT I HASSAN 9 

as they pass, "Ya Hassan, give me ten dinars that I 
may build a mosque!" And I ihall be shamed where 
I was honoured, and abased where I was exahed . . . 

{A loud knocking on the floor of the adjacent 
shop causes Hassan to retire thither hur- 
riedly. As he disappears Yasmin peeps 
inquisitively, unveiled, through the little 
window in the partition.) 

Selim 
What an impudent little beauty. . . . Why, she had 
a widow's scarf on. She must be the princess! 
{Rocks with laughter) The unattainable ideal! And 
I have her address. It requires a frenzied lover to pay 
cash for a flask of coloured water. But I doubt if 
Hassan's sweets mingled with coloured water will do 
aught but make her sick. Whereas a cake stuffed with 
those very dinars. . . . Allah, the dinars would not 
choke her! thou fool Hassan! 

Tell not thy shirt who smiled and answered "Yes": 
Dream not her name, nor fancy her address. 

{Enter Hassan, pale and staggering) . 

Hassan 
Selim, in the name of friendship, take these ten dinars 
and buy me that philtre, and return with speed. 

Selim 
{Feigning irritation) AJlah! Am I your mes- 
senger? Go yourself to the Jew. 



10 HASSAN ACT I 

Hassan 
I must prepare the sweetmeats this very hour, to send 
them to her before sunset. In the name of friend- 
ship, Selim, take the dinars and purchase me the 
philtre. 

Selim 

{Rising and taking dinars) Do not make me charge- 
able, Hassan, if the philtre is without efifect. I only 
repeat what I have heard. 

Hassan 
No, I will not blame you. But go quickly for the 
magic that nothing may be left unsampled that may 
prove beneficial. 

{Exit Selim; Hassan makes up the fire and 
prepares his caldron, saying meanwhile) 

That young man weareth out my carpet apace. I begin 
to think also he doth fray the braid of my affection. 
But if he buys me a good philtre I will forgive him. 
0, cruel destiny, thou hast made me a common man 
with a common trade. My friends are fellows from 
the market, and all my worthless family is dead. Had 
I been rich, ah me! how deep had been my delight in 
matters of the soul, in poetry and music and pictures, 
and companions who do not jeer and grin, and above 
all, in the colours of rich carpets and expensive silks. 
But be content, artist: thou hast one carpet; be 
content, confectioner: thou hast one love — one love, 
but unattained . . . yet hadst thou been rich, confec- 
tioner, never hadst thou found her. 



ACT I HASSAN 11 

Now I will make her sweets, such sweets, ah me! 
as never I made in my life before. I will make her 
sweets like globes of crystal, like cubes of jade, like 
polygons of ruby. I will make her sweets like 
flowers. Great red roses, passionate carnations, raying 
daises, violets, and curly hyacinths. I will perfume my 
roses (may they melt sweetly in her lips) with the 
perfume of roses, so that she shall say "a rose!" and 
smell before she tastes. And in the heart of each 
flower I will distil one drop of the magic of love. Did 
I not say "they shall be flowers"? 

Scene II 

Moonlight. The Street of Felicity by the Fountain of 
the Two Pigeons. A house with a balcony on 
either side the street. 

In front of one of the houses, Hassan, cloaked: a 
Porter. 

Hassan 
Has she received the box, guardian of the door 
of separation? 

Porter 
From my hands, dispenser of bounty. 

Hassan 
What did thy mistress say? 

Porter 
Sir, the hands of mediation are empty. 



12 HASSAN ACT I 

Hassan 
[Giving a dinar) I have filled them. What honey 
dropped from that golden mouth? 

Porter 
She said — may thy servant find grace — "Curses on 
the fat sugar cook and his love-sick eyes. Allah be 
praised, his confectionery is bettter than his counte- 
nance!" 

Hassan 

(Aside) If she likes the confectionery, all may be 
well. And what didst thou reply? 

Porter 
I said: "His sweets sparkle like diamonds and rubies 
in the crown of our Caliph, and his sugar is as pure 
as his intentions." And she answered — the protection 
on thy slave — '"His intentions may be pure, but his 
coat is greasy." 

Hassan 
And did she eat the confectionery? 

Porter 
I do not know. But within the hour I removed the 
box, and it was empty. 

Hassan 
Ah! Salaam and thanks. 

Porter 
And to thee the Salaam. 



ACT I HASSAN 13 

Hassan 
But tell me what is the name of thy mistress? 

Porter 
Yasmin is her name, Sir. 

Hassan 

A sweet name for a moonlight night. Salaam 
aleikum. 

Porter 

Ya Hawaja, v'aleikum assalam! 

{The Porter returns and shuts the gate.) 

Hassan 

{To himself) What if the Jews are an older race 
than we and know old forgotten secrets? Alas, I 
believe no more in these Israelitish sweets. Could 
those drops of purple liquid command the spirit of 
love? And yet, who can say? The young men of 
the market-place laugh at all enchantments — but 
do they know how to spin the sun? On a night like 
this, does not the very fountain sing in tune and en- 
chant the dropping stones? Ah, Yasmin? {Taking 
out lute from beneath his cloak and tuning it.) 
Yasmin . . . Yasmin . . . Yasmin . . . Yasmin. 

{Intones to the accompaniment of the lute.) 

How splendid in the morning glows the lily; with 

what grace he throws 
His supplication to the rose: do roses nod the head, 

Yasmin ? 



14 HASSAN ACT I 

But when tlie silver dove descends I find the little 

flower of friends, 
Whose very name that sweetly ends, I say when I 

have said, Yasmin. 
The morning light is clear and cold; I dare not in 

that light behold 
A whiter light, a deeper gold, a glory too far shed, 

Yasmin. 
But when the deep red eye of day is level with the 

lone highway. 
And some to Meccah turn to pray, and I toward thy 

bed, Yasmin. 
Or when the wind beneath the moon is drifting like 

a soul aswoon, 
And harping planets talk love's tune with milky wings 

outspread, Yasmin, 
Shower down thy love, burning bright! for one 

night or the other night 
Will come the Gardener in white, and gathered 

flowers are dead, Yasmin! 

(^5 Hassan intones the last "Yasmin" with 
passion the shutters open, and Yasmin. 
veiled, looks out. ) 

Yasmin 
Alas, Minstrel, Yasmin is my name also, but it was 
for a fairer Yasmin than me, I fear, you have strung 
these pearls. 

Hassan 

There is no Yasmin but Yasmin, and you are Yasmin. 



ACT I HASSAN 15 

Yasmin 
Can this be Hassan, the Confectioner? 

Hassan 
I am Hassan, and I am a confectioner. 

Yasmin 
Mashallah, Hassan, your words are sweeter than your 
sweets. 

Hassan 
Gracious lady, your eyes look down through your 
veil like angels through a cloud. Dare I ask to see 
your face, bright perfection? 

Yasmin 

(Roguishly) Do you take me for a Christian, 
father of impertinence? And since when do the 
daughters of Islam unveil before strangers? 

Hassan 
It is said: he who speaks to the heart is no stranger. 

Yasmin 
(Unveiling her eyes) Are you satisfied, impor- 
tunate ! 

Hassan 

Never, till I have seen perfection to perfection. 

Yasmin 
You would shrivel, my poet. What about "the glory 
too far shed, Yasmin"? 



16 HASSAN ACT I 

Hassan 
Let me see you unveiled, Yasmin. 

Yasmin 
Anything to close the portal of your face. (Unveil- 
ing) There. Do I please thee, my Sultan? 

Hassan 
(Rapturously) Oh, you are beautiful! 

Yasmin 
Prince of poets, is that all you have to say! Not 
a stanza, not a trope, not a turn, not a twist, not 
even a hint that the heavens are opened, or that there 
are two moons in the sky together? 

Hassan 

There is but one. 

Yasmin 

Well confectioned, my cdnfectioner ! And now, 
Good-night. 

Hassan 
stay, Yasmin, you are too beautiful and I too bold. 
I am nothing, and you are the Queen of the Stars of 
Night. But the thought of you is twisted in the strings 
of my heart; I burn with love of you, Yasmin. Put 
me to the proof, my lady; there is nothing I could 
not do for your bright eyes. I would cross the salt 
desert and wrest the cup of the water of life from the 
Jinn that guards it; I would walk to the barriers of 



ACT I HASSAN 17 

the world and steal the roc's egg from its diamond 
nest. I would swim the seven oceans, and cross the 
five islands to rob Solomon ben Dawud of his ring 
in the palace where he lies sleeping in the silence and 
majesty of uncorrupting death. And I would slip the 
ring on your finger and make you mistress of the 
spirits of the air — but would you love me? Could 
you love me, do you love me, Yasmin? 

Yasmin 
There is love and love and love. 

Hassan 
[Passionately) Oh, answer me! 

Yasmin 
I think I have been enchanted, Hassan; how, I can- 
not tell. Till this afternoon the thought of your ap- 
pearance made my heart narrow with disgust. But 
since I ate your present of comfits — and they were 
admirable comfits, and I ate them with speed — my 
heart is changed and inclined toward you, I know not 
why or how, except it be through magic. 

Hassan 

(Aside) She is mine, and magic rules the world! 
(Aloud) Yasmin, shall I possess you, Yasmin? 

Yasmin 
Am I not a desert waiting for the rain? Was I 
not born for passion, Hass£in? Is not my bosom burn- 
ing for kisses? Were not these arms made smooth and 
hard to fight the battle of love? 



18 HASSAN ACT I 

Hassan 

Are not your lips love's roses, your cheeks love's 
lilies, your eyes love's hyacinths? 

Yasmin 
Ya, Hassan, and my hair the net of love, and my 
girdle the chain of love that breaks at a lover's touch? 

Hassan 
I am drowning in a wave of madness. Let me in, 
Yasmin; let me in! 

Yasmin 
Ah, if I could! 

Hassan 
Why not? 

Yasmin 
Ah, if I dared! 

Hassan 
What do you fear? It is night, and the street is 
silent. 

Yasmin 
Ah, dear Hassan, but I am not alone. 

Hassan 
(Whispering) Not alone? Who isi there? Your 
mother? 



ACT I HASSAN 19 

Yasmin 
No! One whom you sent here. 

Hassan 
I sent no one. 

Yasmin 
One of your friends. 

Hassan 
A man? 

Selim 
{Poking his head out of the window) Ya, Hassan, 
Salatmi aleikum. I thank you for directing my steps to 
this rose-strewn bower. 

Hassan 

(Astonished) Selim! 

Selim 
Thy servant always. 

Hassan 

{Wildly) Selim! 

Selim 
Be advised, Hassan, go and seek the enchanted egg. 

Hassan 
Selim, what do you here? 



20 HASSAN ACT I 

Selim 
Plunge not the finger of enquiry into the pie of im- 
pertinence, my uncle. 

Hassan 
Since when have I become your uncle, Selim, and 
how did I cease to be your friend? 

Selim 
Since when did you aspire to poetry, Hassan; but 
I have heard these lines: 

As from the eagle flies the dove 

So friendship from the claw of love. 

Hassan 
Love. What love do you mean, scum of the market? 

Selim 
This. {Puts a hand on Yasmin's shoulder.) 

Hassan 
May God strike thee blind, Selim, and shut the door 
of his compassion against thee! 

Selim 
What is my crime, Uncle? How have I sinned against 
thee, or merited this solemn imprecation? 

Hassan 

Do not touch her, you dog, do not touch her! 

Selim 
Is it a crime to touch Yasmin, my Uncle? Am I not 



ACT I HASSAN 21 

to be excused? Is not her neck a pillar of the marble 
of Yoonistan? {Puts his arm round her neck.) 

Hassan 
Torment of death! 

Yasmin 
Are not my arms like swords of steel, hard and cold, 
and thirsty for blood ? (Putting her arms round the 
neck of Selim.) 



Hassan 



Fire of hell. 



Selim 
Are not her eyes two sapphires in two pools? 

Hassan 

Woe is me ! Woe is me ! 

Yasmin 
Are not my lips two rubies drenched in blood? 
(Kisses him.) 

Hassan 
God, I shall fall ! 

Selim 

(His face in Yasmin's bosom) Could'st thou but see, 

my Uncle, the silver hills with their pomegranate 

groves; or the deep fountain in the swelling plain, or 

the Ethiopian who waters the roses in the garden, or the 



22 HASSAN ACT I 

great lamp between the columns where the incense of 
love is burned. How can I thank thee, my Uncle, for 
the name and address, and half the old Jew's dinars! 

Yasmin 
How can I thank thee, my Uncle, for sending me 
this strong and straight young friend of thine to console 
my loneliness and desolation. Ah, it is bitter to be a 
widow and so young! 

Hassan 

(Putting up his Ivands to his head) The fountain, the 
fountain! my head, my head! 

Yasmin 

Be not too rash, my Uncle, or thy hair will come away 
in thy hands. 

Hassan 
\i I could but reach your necks with a knife, children 
of Sheitan ! 

Yasmin 
I was the sun of his existence, and now I am a child of 
Sheitan — and why? Never again will I trust the love 
of a man. I was a glory too far shed, and now he wants 
to open my neck. And already he has tried to poison 
me. Ya, Hassan, if you desire my death, send me some 
more enchanted sweets! 

Selim 
Beware, Hassan, of jesting with the Jinn. 



ACT I HASSAN 23 

Yasmin 
Buy, Hassan, no more juice from Jews. 

Selim 
Much I fear, my friend, for thy character in the mar- 
ket. No more will men say, "Hassan is a safe man"; but 
they will nudge each other and say, "Beware of Hassan, 
Hassan is a great magician; he has talked with the spir- 
its of the air! Deal not with Hassan, my son, 
Saadet, for he sells enchanted sweets that drive the con- 
sumer to madness. And at night Hassan becomes a cat, 
and walketh on the roofs after the female cats. Allah 
preserve me from the evil eye of such a one!" And an- 
other will say, tapping his forehead, "Speak no harm of 
poor Hassan, for his brain is very sick!" And the small, 
guileless boys will say, "Behold Hassan, who gave ten 
dinars for a pint of indigo and water!" 

Hassan 

Ah, death! 

Yasmin 
Look at him! He is drifting like a soul aswoon! Go 
home, old fellow! 

Selim 
Go home, and write poems! 

Yasmin 
Go home, and cook sweets! 

Hassan 
Yasmin! Yasmin! My head! 



24 HASSAN ACT I 

Yasmin 
Begone, or I will cool thy head, thou wearisome old 
fool! 

Hassan 

Yasmin! Yasmin! (Stands with his arms out- 
stretched.) 

Yasmin 
Take this, my bulbul, to quench thy aspiration. 
{Pours a jug of water over him, and slams the shutters 
to. Hassan does not budge from his position.) 

Hassan 

thou villainous, unclean dog, Selim. thou un- 
utterable woman. I will have you both whipped through 
the city and impaled in the market-place, and your 
bodies flung to rot on a dung heap. 0, my head aches! 
Ah, you foul swine! May you scream in hell for ever. 
0, my head — my head. For ever. Thou and thy magic 
and thy Jew. There is blood dripping from the wall. 
[Banging on the gate) I will break the house in. I 
will kill you. Ya, Allah, I am splitting in twain. It 
is my own fault for having dreams and believing magic. 
Ya, Allah, I am dying. Oh, Yasmin, so beautiful, so 
brutal. 0, burning bright; you have killed me! Fare- 
well, and the Salaam! 

(Falls under the shadow of the fountain. Si- 
lence. A light appears in the next house. 
Soft music starts; the first light of dawn 
shines in the sky.) 



ACT I HASSAN 25 

{Enter the Caliph Haroun al Raschid, Jafar, his Vi- 
zier, Masrur (a negro), his Executioner, and 
IsHAK, a young man, his poet, all attired as Mer- 
chants. ) 

Caliph 
Ishak, my heart is heavy, and still the night drags on, 
and still we wander in the crooked streets, and still we 
find no entertainment, and still the white moon shines. 

ISHAK 

Caliph of Islam, is there not vast entertainment for 
the wise in the shining of the moon, in the dripping of 
that fountain, and in the sha6e of that tall cypress that 
has leapt the wall to shoot her arrow at the stars? 

(The music ivhich had stopped recommences.) 

Caliph 
But I hear music, and see lights. Come on, 
come on, we will snatch profit from this cursed night 
even yet, my friends, even at the eleventh hour. 

Jafar 

Master, the night is far advanced, and you have not 
slept. It is a late hour to seek for entertainment. 

Caliph 
Jafar, you are as prudent as a shopkeeper. 

Ishak 
There lies his merit, Haroun! For he keeps the 



26 HASSAN ACT I 

great shop of state, he sells the revenue of provinces, and 
buys in the lives of men. 

Caliph 
Enough, enough. Call to them, Jafar, and see if 
they will let us in. 

Jafar 

Oh, gentlefolk, in the name of Allah! 

Voice 
{From window, the person invisible) Who calls? 

Jafar 

Sir, we are four merchants who came yesterday 
night from Basra, and on our arrival we met in the 
street a man of Basra settled in Bagdad, who prayed 
us to dine with him. So we accepted and stayed 
late talking the talk of Basra, and left him but an 
hour ago. And since we were strangers to the city, we 
lost our way, and have been wandering ever since in 
search of our Khan and have not found it. And now 
a happy chance has taken us to this street; for see- 
ing lights and hearing music, indeed, sir, we hope 
to taste the cup of thy kindness, being men of honour, 
good companions and true believers. 

Voice 

Then you are not of Bagdad? 

Jafar 
No, sir, but of Basra. 



ACT I HASSAN 27 

Voice 
Had you been of Bagdad, you should not have entered 
for all the gold in the Caliph's coffers. 

Caliph 
Then we may enter, being of Basra? 

Voice 
H you enter, you will be in my power. And if 
you annoy me, I will punish you with death. But no 
one constraineth you to enter. Go in peace, men 
of Basra. 

Caliph 
(Aside) A rare adventure. (Aloud) We take the 
risk of annoying you, host of terror, and are now 
looking for the door. 

Voice 

Since when did a door of good reputation open on 
to this street, my masters? Our door is far from here, 
and you are strangers and merry, and will not find 
it. But I will contrive a means for your ascent. 

Caliph 
Jafar, I never suspected there was a great house in 
this poor quarter of the town. For from the outside 
it is a house like any other, except that it has no door; 
but inside, if this is but the back of it, it, is of 
great extent and holds some secret. We shall make a 
discovery to-night, Jafar. 



28 HASSAN ACT I 

J AFAR 

Master, we have been warned of danger! 

{A basket comes dawn.) 

Cauph 
Danger? What care I? 

{Sits in the basket, and is drawn up.) 

Jafar 
Eh, MasruT, I could sleep a little. 

Masrur 
You would wake in Paradise if the Caliph heard 
you, Jafar. 

(Masrur ivaves his sword dexterously near 
Jafar's neck.) 

Jafar 
{As he ascends into the basket, pointing to Masrur's 
sword) The path to Paradise is narrow and shiny, 
Masrur! 

Masrur 
{With a grim motion of the sword) Ya, Jafar, it 
is a short cut. 

(Jafar having ascended, Masrur ascends, 
and the basket is let down for Ishak.) 

ISHAK 

{Alone) Go on thy way without me, Commander 



ACT I HASSAN 29 

of the Faithful. I will follow you no further. Find 
one more adventure if you will. For me, the break 
of day is adventure enough — and the water splash- 
ing in the fountain. Find out, Haroun, the secret of 
the lights and of the music, of the house that has no door, 
and the master that will admit no citizen. Drag out 
the mystery of a man's love or loss, then break your 
oath and publish his tale to all Bagdad, then fling 
him gold, and fling him gold, and dream you have 
made a friend! Those bags of gold you fling, my 
generous master, to a mistress for a night, to a poet 
for a jest, to a rich friend for an entertainment, to a 
beggar for a whim, are they not the revenues of 
cities, wrung by torture from the poor? But the sighs 
of your people, Haroun, do not so much as stir the 
leaves in your palace garden! 

And I — I have taken your gold, I, Ishak, who was 
born on the mountains free of the woods and winds. 
I have made my home in your palace, and almost 
forgot it was a prison. And for you I have strung 
glittering, fulsome verses, a hundred rhyming to one 
rhyme, ingeniously woven, my disgrace as a poet, 
my dishonour as a man. And I have forgotten that 
there are men who dig and sow, and a hut on the 
hills where I was born. 

{Perceives Hassan) Ah, there is a body, here in the 
shade. The corpses of the poor are very common in 
the streets these days. They die of poison or the knife, 
but most of hunger. Mashallah, but you have not died 
of hunger, my friend, and there is that on your face 
I do not like to see. By his clothes this was a com- 
mon man, a grocer or a baker, his person ill -proper- 



30 HASSAN ACT I 

tioneil and unseemly, but by liis forehead not quite 
a common man. I think 

Jafar 
[From above) Ishak, are you coming up? 

IsHAK 

(Shouting, back) Wait a minute, I will come. 

(To himS'elf) What has curved his mouth into that 
bitter line? He is an ugly man. but I maintain there 
is grace in his countenance. 

What? a lute? Take my hand, brother. You 
loved music too, and you could sing the songs of the 
people, which are better tlian mine — the songs I learnt 
from the mother of my mother. [Taking the broken 
lute mechanically) What was that one? 

"The Green Boy came from over the mountains, 

Joy of the morning, joy of his heart" ? ■, 

I have forgotten it, and the lute is broken. Or that 
other: 

"Come to the wells, the desert wells! 

The caravan is marching down; I hear the camel bells," 

{Resumes Hassan's hand) Ah, brother, your hand is 
warm and vour heart beating, you are not dead. 
(Bathing Hassan's forehead nith water from the 
fountain) I shall know after all what has twisted 
your mouth awry. 

Caliph 
Ishak, Ishak, we wait and wait. 



ACT I HASSAN 31 

ISHAK 
May I not be free one hour, to breathe tlie dawn 
alone! Ah! . . . [Takes Hassan's body orid drags it 
to the basket) I come, my master! {Puts Hassan 
in the basket) There, take my phice, brother, and find 
your destiny. I will be free to-night, free for one dawn 
upon the hills! 

{As Hassan is drawn up in the basket, 
Ishak walks rapidly away.) 

curtain. 



ACT II 

Scene I 

A great room. To the left three arches lead out on 
to a balcony where the personages Caliph, Jafar 
and Host are collected. The interior of the 
room is blazing ivith lights, but empty. The 
architecture of the room is curious on account 
of the nvide, loiv arches ivhich cut off a square 
in the centre. The furniture of the room is in 
rich, rather vulgar Oriental taste. 

Caliph 
Ishak, Ishak, we are waiting and waiting. 

Jafar 
Ishak! Ishak! Perhaps he is faint. 

Caliph 
Faint! 

Jafar 
Let me go down and see what he is doing. I think 
I hear him talking. 

Caliph 

He is talking to shadows. He has one of his evil 
fits to-night. Do not trouble your head or mine about 
him. He presumes on our friendship, and forgets the 

32 



ACT II HASSAN 33 

respect due to us. Am I to be kept waiting like a 
Jew in a court of justice, I the Master . . . 

Jafar 
(Quickly) We are not in Basra, Sir. But see, the 
rope has tightened. [To Masrur) Haul, thou' whose 
soul is white. 

Rafi (Host) 
(Helping with ropes to Caliph who stands idle) 
God restore to you the use of your arms, my brother 
from Basra. 

(Hassan rolls out of the basket, filthy and 
inanimate.) 

Yallah, Yallah, on what dunghill did this fowl die? 
Is this your man of honour? 

Jafar 
(Astonished) Host of the house, this is not our com- 
panion, and we have never set eyes on him before. 

Rafi 
Then what is this? 

Caliph 
Our friend has played a trick on us — may Allah 
separate him from salvation! — and sent up this body 
in place of himself. Come, let us tip it out into the 
street. 



;Vl HASSAN ACT II 

Rah 
{Feclins: Hassan's puhe) Wait; tliis man is by no 
means dead, and tlie mill of his heart still grinds 
the flour of life. Ho, Alder! 

{Enter Alter, a youn^ and pretty page.) 

Alder 
At his master's service. 

Rao 
Ho. X^illow ! 

Willow 
(}'oi*/i^er still) At his lord's order. 

R-\FI 

Juniper! 

Jumper 
At his Pasha's command. 

Rafi 
Tamarisk ! 

Tamarisk 
{A little boy uith a squeaky voice) At his Sub- 
limity's ft\n. 

C\UPH 
[Aside to Jafar^ Truly, this is charming: an 
illustrious example of dei^-orum and good taste. 



ACT II HASSAN 35 

Rafi 

Transform this into a man, my slaves. Revive him, 
bathe, soap, scent, comb him, clothe him with a cer- 
emonial coat and bring him back to us. 

Alder 
We hear, 

Willow 
We honour, 

Juniper 
We tremble, 

Tamarisk 
and obey. 

Caliph 

(Entering the great room of the house) Thy house 
is of grand proportions and eccentric architecture, my 
Host; it is astonishing that such a house should look 
out on to so mean a street. 

Rafi 

It is an old house wherein the Manichees (the devil 
roast all heretics!) once held their meetings before 
they were all flayed alive. It is called the house of 
the moving walls. 

Caliph 
Why such a name? 



36 HASSAN ACT II 

Rafi 
I do not know at all. 

Cauph 
The merry noise of music that we heard is silent. 

Rafi 
I waited for your permission, my guests, before con- 
tinuing my meagre entertainment. Ho, music! Ho, 
dancers! {Claps his hands.) 

{M,usic plays. The Host enters the room and 
motions his GuESTS to be seated in 
silence. ) 

Caliph 
Verily, after this prelude, and in this splendid 
palace, we shall see dancing women worthy of Paradise. 

Jafar 
God grant it, Master. 

Caliph 
[To Jafar) Hush, I hear the pattering of feet. 
The wine of anticipation is dancing through my veins. 
Jafar, what incomparable houris will charm our eyes 
to-night? What rosy breasts, what silver shoulders, 
what shapely legs, what jasmine arms! 

{In good order, marching to the music, there enters the 
most au'fid selection of Eastern Beggars the eye 
could imagine, or the tongue describe. They are 
headed by their Chief, a rather fine fellow, in 



ACT II HASSAN 37 

indescribable tatters. He leads the CiiORUS with 
a song, half intoned in the Oriental style.) 

Fathers of two feet, advance, 

Dot and go ones, hop along, 
Two feet missing need not dance. 
But will join us in the song. 
Chorus of Culs-de-Jatte 

But will join you in the song. 

Show your most revolting scar; 

People never weary of it. 
The more nauseous you are — 

More their pity and your profit. 
Chorus And your profit, profit, profit. 

Cracked of lip and gapped of tooth, 

Apoplectic, maim or mad, 
Blind of one eye, blind of both, 
Up, the beggars of Bagdad. 
Chorus Up, the beggars of Bagdad. 

There's a cellar, I am told. 

Where a little lamp is lit. 
And that cellar's full of gold. 

Sacks and sacks and sacks of it. 

Chorus (//oarseZy) 

Sacks and sacks and sacks of it, 
Stacks and stacks and stacks of it. 
Open eyes and stiffen backs. 
There are sacks and sacks and sacks; 
And gold for him who lacks of it. 



38 HASSAN ACT II 

(The Host lifts his hand. The Beggars oil fall 
flat on their faces. Dance music.) 
(Enter right, a Band of fair. left, a Band of dusky 
beauties.) 

The Dancing Girls 

Daughters of delight, advance. 

Petals, petals, drift along; 
Cypress, tremble! Firefly, dance! 

Nightingale, your song, your song! 

The Fair 
\^'e are pale 

The D.\rk 

as dawn, with rose*. 
\^'e are dark. the roses. desire! 

The Fair 
(Curtsying) but as the twilight 

Shooting all the sky with fire. 

Chorus 
Daughters of delight, advance. 
Petals, petals, drift along. 
Cypress tremble! Fireflv dance! 
Nightingale, vour song, vour song! 
{They surround the Beggars, dancing, and 
point at them.) 

Leader of the Fair 
From what base tavern, of what street 



ACT II IL\SSAN 39 

Were dragged these dogs, that foul our feet? 

Leader of the Dark 
sisters, fly, we shall be hurt: 

[The Leader of the Beggars catches her.) 
Leave go my aiikle, son of dirt. 

Leader of the Beggars 
Lady, if the dirt should gleam, 

Feel, but do not show surprise: 
Things that happen here would seem. 

{Rises to his feet, his rags drop off. and he 
shines in gold.) 

Paradox in Paradise. 

{The infirmities and rags of the whole Band 
disappear as if by magic, as they rise and 
shout in Chorus.) 

Chorus 
Paradox in Paradise. 
(Rafi raises his hand. All stand at attention.) 

Voices 

Hush, the King speaks. 
The King of the Beggars. 
The King. 

Leader of the Beggars 
The King of the Beggars, the Caliph of the Faith- 



40 HASSAN ACT II 

le:v*, riie IViU-ock of the Silver Fath. the Master of 
Bag^iad! 

[Thf BxLLET line the room behind the arches.) 

J AFAR 
(Aside, astonisheii) King of the Beggars? 

Masriti 
[Aside, astonisht'd^ Master of Bagiiad? 

Cauph 
(Aside, astonished) Caliph of tlie Faithless? Allah 
kerim. this is a jt^t indeeil! 

(Throning off his outer garment and discoi^'ering 
himself superbly dressed in a golden armour) Suhjei'ts 
and Gut^ts. Now that the night before our day is end- 
ing, and the Wolf's Tail is already brushing the east- 
ern sky: now that our plot is ready, our conspiracy 
establisluxl. our victory imminent, what is there left 
for me to tell vou. faithful band? Shall I say. 
be brave? You are lions. Be cunning? ^ ou are 
serpMits. Be bloody? You are wolves. 

Stv now, Bagdad is still in dreams that in a few 
minutt^s shall be full of fire, and that fire rtxlder than 
the dawn. You have beggtnl — you shall buy: you 
have fawned — you shall fight: vou hjive plotted — you 
shall plunder: you have cringed — you shall kill. 

How loud thev snore, those swine whose nostrils 
we shall slit to-day I Copper they flung to us, and 



ACT II HASSAN 41 

steel we shall give them back; good steel of Damascus, 
that digs a narrow hole and deep. 

But as for the Peacoclc of Peacocks, that sack of 
debauch, that Caliph, alive in his coffin, I and none 
other will nail him down, with his eyes staring into 
mine. His gardens, fountains, summer houses, tmd 
palaces; his horses, mules, camels, and elephants, his 
statues of Yoonistan, and his wines of Ferangistaii, his 
eimuchs of EgTpt. and his carpets of Bokhara, and 
his great sealed boxes bursting with unbeaten gold, and 
his beads of amethyst, and his bracelets of sapphire, all 
this and all his women, his chosen flower-like women, 
are yours for lust and loot and lechery, my children — 
all save her of whom I warned you — the ^voman who 
is mine, and who shall sit unveiled with me on the 
throne of all the Caliphs . . . and when you see us 
sitting on that throne together, then you shall cry • . • 

The Begc^xS 
{Takins: up uith a shout) The Caliph is dead! The 
Caliphate is over! Long live the King! 

Jaf.vr 

{In indignation) These words are not holy, even in 
jest 

Rati 

guests of an hour. I pray you put the tongue of dis- 
cretion into the cheek of propriety. 

Jaf.\r 
Propriety! The host's obligations are greater than 



42 HASSAN ACT II 

the j:ut'^t->;*. It is not iiood taste to speak thus before tlie 
invited. We pray you only that we may withdraw at 
onee. 

And who will witlidraw nu\ mv masters, from the ven- 
gt\mee of the Caliph, onee you have talked a talk with 
the Captain of his Guard? 

J AFAR 

V^ e give vou our promise: we are men of honour. 

Rah 

If vou were thieves, as we are, I miiiht trust you. 
But if, as vou sav. you are men of honour, honour will 
drive vou pai\ting to the Caliph's gate, and honour will 
swiftlv break a promise made to a thief and a rebel, un- 
der eompulsion. 

J AFAR 

Sir. 1 prav vou, no more of this, be it jest or earnest. 
It will soon be morning: we must away: we have pressmg 
business: our clients await us. 

Rafi 
Give mo their names, my guests, and to-night I will 
fling their gold and their carcases together at your teet. 

Jaf.vr 
\\ e insist that you let us go. 



ACT II HASSAN 43 

Rafi 
merchants, tell mo but this one tiling: do you dwell 
in fine houses in the port of Basra? 

Jafar 
We have no mean abodes. 

Rafi 

Are your apartments spacious and well furnished? 

Jafar 
\^ell enough. 

Rafi 
And tell me further, have you soft carpets on the 
floors of those rooms? 

Jafar 
There axe carpets. 

Rafi 
Great, rich, soft carpets from Persia and Afghanistan? 

Jafar 
Yes. 

Rafi 
It is a pity. Soft carpets make soft the sole of the 
foot. And they who have soft feet should ever keep them 
in the road of meekness. 



44 HASSAN ACT II 

Masrur 
{Drawing his sword) Dost thou dare threaten us, 
bismillah! 

Rafi 

Truly, most disgusting negro, comprehension and 
thou have been separated since your youth. Shall I then 
drop the needle of insinuation and pick up the club of 
statement? Shall I tell you three guests of mine, with 
the plainness of plainness and the openness of plain- 
ness, that if you offer one threat more, propose one 
evasion more, or ask one question more, I will thrash 
your lives head downwards from your feet. 

{Enter Hassan finely dressed, ushered in by the 
Four Boys through the rows of Dancers.) 

Hassan 

{Lamenting) Eywallah, eywallah, eywah, eywah, 
Mashallah! Istagfurallah! 

Rafi 

Why, here is the fourth guest! 

Alder 
We have washed him: he needed it. 

Willow 
Combed him: it was necessary. 

Juniper 
Scented him: it was our duty. 



ACT II HASSAN 45 

Tamarisk 
Clothed him: it was our delight. 

Hassan 
(As before) Ey wallah! Yallah Akbar! Y'allah 
kerim! Istagfurallah ! Eywallah! Hassan is ended! 
Hassan is no more! He is dead! He is buried! He 
is a bone! Y'allah kerim! 

Rafi 

Eyyah Hassan, if that is your name, have my boys 
not treated you well? If they have hurt you with their 
tricks, by the Great Name, I will . . . 

Hassan 

I pray you, I pray you. Thrash no one's life out 
downwards from their feet, master, and above all, 
not mine. 

Rafi 

Ah, you heard me! Take courage. All that I 
require of my guests, good Hassan, is genteel behav- 



Hassan 

Ah! Who are these terrible men? 

Rafi 

Beggars of Bagdad! Ten thousand more await my 
signal in the streets. In a few minutes they will sur- 
prise the drowsy Palace Guards, sack Bagdad, kill the 
Caliph and make me King. 



46 HASSAN ACT II 

Hassan 

(Stupefied) What has become of me this night! 
Just now I was in Hell, with all the fountains raining 
fire and blood. 

Rafi 

Come, Hassan, you are only just in time; the cold 
dawn which ends the revellers' dark day will soon be 
uncurtaining the blue. One bowl to pledge me victory, 
guests, for I must away and win it, and you shall 
lie here to sleep away the destruction of Bagdad. At 
least you shall say this of your host — he gave us 
splendid wine. 

(The Four Slaves hand round the bowl; 
the Caliph refuses) 

{To Caliph) Sir, you do not drink. 

Caliph 
I obey the Prophet. 

Rafi 

What wine do they grow in the desert of Meccah, 
or on the sandhills of Medina? Ah, had the Prophet 
tasted wine of Syria or the islands, the book would 
have been shorter by that uncomfortable verse. 

Jafar 
Come, host! I at all events will pledge you. There 
is ever fellowship between those who have drunk wine 
together, be they murderers or thieves or Christians. 



ACT II HASSAN 47 

Masrur 
Host, on the day when I shall spill your blood, I 
shall drink a little in remembrance of this bowl of 
wine. Till then your health! (Drinks.) 

Rafi 

{Sarcastically) Ye are three jolly fellows of 
amiable dispositions, (Drinks.) I thank you, negro, 
I drink to yours. 

Hassan 
I drink to forget a woman, but will this little cup 
suffice? 

Rafi 
Nor ten, nor ten thousand little cups like these, if 
you have loved. To-night I shall fill my bowl of 
oblivion with the blood of the Caliph of Bagdad. 
Brother, will that great cup suffice? 

Hassan 
(In terror) Call me not brother, thou savage man, 
who dost dare talk of shedding the holiest blood in 
Islam. 

Rafi 

When high office is polluted, when the holy is unholy, 
when justice is a lie, when the people are starved, 
and the great fools of the world in high office, then 
dares a man talk of shedding the holiest blood in 
Islam. 



4g HASSAN ACT II 

Caliph 
Also when one has a vengeance to wreak on the 
Caliph and a claim on a lady of his household. 

Masrur 
Why do you want to nail him in his coffin alive? 
Tell us the tale, 

Jafar 
Tell us, if you would not have us think you a mad- 
man or a buffoon. 

Caliph 
Tell us about the woman; what harm can it do 
you since we are in your power? 

Rafi 

{After hesitation) Yes, what harm can it do, if 
for my own sake, to relieve the heaviness of my heart, 
I tell you something of my story? 

My name is Rafi. I come from the hills beyond 
Mosul, where the men walk free and the women go 
unveiled. There I was betrothed to Pervaneh, a woman 
beautiful and wise. But the very day before our mar- 
riage the Governor of Mosul remembered my country 
and invaded it with a thousand men. And little enough 
plunder they got from our village, but they caught 
Pervaneh walking alone among the pine woods and 
carried her away. When I heard this I leapt on my 
horse and galloped to Mosul, prepared to slay the 
Governor and all the inJiabitants thereof single- 
handed, if evil had come to Pervaneh. But there I 



ACT II HASSAN 49 

found she had already been sent with a raft full of 
slaves down the Tigris to Bagdad. Whereupon I hired 
six men with shining muscles to row me there. We 
arrived at Bagdad at the end of the third night's row- 
ing at the grey of dawn. I sprang out of the raft 
like a tiger, and ran like a madman through the streets, 
crying "The Slave Market! Tell me the way, ye 
citizens! The Slave Market, the Slave Market!" 

And suddenly turning a corner I eame upon the 
market, which was like a garden full of girls in splen- 
did clothes grouped in groups like flowers in garden 
beds; and some like lilies, naked. I ran round the 
market to find Pervaneh and all the women laughed 
at me aloud, and behold there she stood; she who 
had never worn a veil before, the only veiled woman 
in all the market, for she had sworn to bite off her 
lips if her master would not veil her: but I knew 
her by the beauty of her hands, and I cried: "0 
dealer, the veiled woman for a thousand dinars!" And 
the dealer laughed in the way of dealers at the pre- 
sumption of my off'er and demanded two thousand, and 
so I purchased for gold the blood of my own heart, 
and she lifted her veil and sang for joy and hung 
upon my neck, and all the slave girls clapped their 
hands. 

But at that moment there entered the market a negro 
eunuch, so tall and so disgusting that the sun was 
darkened, and the birds whistled for terror in the trees. 
And all the dealers and the slaves bowed low before 
him. Coming to my dealer, he cried: "Why dost thou 
sell slaves before the Caliph has made his choice?" 

Then turning to Pervaneh, he said, "Go back to 



50 HASSAN ACT II 

thy place," And I cried, "She is my purchase." But 
the eunuch said, "Hold tliy peace; I take her for the 
Caliph." 

And suddenly two guards seized Pervaneh, and I 
drawing my sword was about to hew the eunuch into 
a thousand pieces, but Pervaneh made a sign to me, 
and looking up I saw I was surrounded by men at 
arms. And Pervaneh cried in the speech of my country, 
as they carried her away: "I will die, but I will not 
be defiled: rescue me alive or dead, soon or late, and 
avenge me on this Caliph, may the ravens eat his 
entrails!" 

That is my story, and for this reason I will nail 
the Caliph down in his coffin, bound and living and 
with open eyes. 

Caliph 
{In horror) Bound and living, with open eyes! 
Thou devil! 

Masrur 
Is that all the story? 

Jafar 
Will you tear up the Empire for the honour of a 
girl? 

Caliph 
{In fury) And set your worthless passion in scale 
against the splendour of Islam! 

Rafi 

Is this Haroun the splendour of Islam? Is the pros- 



ACT II HASSAN 51 

perity of his people, a rosy slave in his serai, or their 
happiness, a fish in his silver fountain? 

Jafar 
God will frustrate thee. 

Rafi 

If He will. Farewell, my guests. I go to avenge 
Pervaneh, and to wash Bagdad in blood. 

Jafar 
And what of us? 

Rafi 

It is well for you that you are my guests, for you 
are rich and proud, and eminently deserve destruc- 
tion. But you are as safe in this room as in an iron 
cage; you will only hear, as in a dream, the crash 
of the fall of the statue of tyranny. 

Caliph 

[Rushing to intercept him) By the thick smoke of 
Hell's Pit and the Ghouls that eat men's flesh, you 
shall not go, and we shall not stay. 

Rafi 
Look twice before you touch me! 

(He leaps behind the archway. The Beggars 
and the Women are now lined close to the 
wall of the room and the Guests are iso- 
lated in the centre. From behind every 
pillar appears an Archer with bow drawn 
taut directed on the startled Guests.) 



52 HASSAN ACT II 

Chorus of Beggars and Dancing Girls 
To-day the fools who catch a cold in summer 
Will fly for winter in the windy moon. 

To-day the little rills of shining water 
Will catch the fire of morning oversoon. 

To-day the state musicians and court poets 
Will set new verses to a special tune. 

To-day Haroun, the much-detested Caliph 
Will find his Caliphate inopportune. 

Rafi 

{Silencing the Singers tvith a wave of his hand; 
to the Guests) Did not some one ask me why this 
house was called tlie House of the Moving Walls? 

Caliph 
I asked that question. 

[Sheets of iron fall with a crash covering the 
apertures of the arches. The Four Guests 
are completely walled in.) 

Rafi, Beggars And Women 

(From behind the iron partitions with a shout) 
Answered ! 

J AFAR 

This is a disastrous situation! 

[The Beggars tramp out to martial music.) 

Voices of the Beggars 
{Retreating) 



ACT II HASSAN 53 

To-day Haroun, the much-detested Caliph, 
Will find his Caliphate inopportune! 

Jafar 

{Listening at the wall) They have all left the room. 
At least we are alone. Let us shout, they may hear 
us from the street. 

Masrur 

{Banging on the wall) Eyyah! Help, help, men 
of Bagdad! The Caliph is in danger! The Caliph 
is in prison! . . . Come up and save the Caliph, the 
Master of Men, the Shaker of the World! . . . 

{Silence.) 

Caliph 
There comes no answering cheer . . . 

Jafar 
I had forgotten the height of this room above the 
streets: and on either side stretches the empty garden 
of this house! 

{The Caliph, Jafar and Masrur rush round 
as though trying to find a way out of their 
prison, and banging on the iron walls. 
Hassan takes his seat on the carpet.) 

Caliph 

Allah! and this room is a box within a box like a 
Chinese toy. And that man will surprise my soldiers 
in the chill of dawn, and sack my palace and burn 
Bagdad. He will discover my identity and bury me 
alive! 



54 HASSAN ACT II 

Jafar 
Alas, Master! What shall we do? 

Caliph 
Thou dog! Thou dirt! Thou dunghill! Thou 
dustheap! Did I make thee Vizier to ask counsel or 
to give it? Find out what we shall do! Thou hast 
let me fall into a trap, and now dost quiver and quake 
and shiver and shake like a tub of whey on the back of a 
restive camel: my kingdom is reduced from twelve prov- 
inces to twelve square cubits: my subjects from thirty 
millions unto three, but, Bismillah! one of my subjects 
is the Executioner, and Mashallah! another one merits 
execution: and Inshallah! if thy head doth not im- 
mediately devise a practicable scheme of escape it shall 
dive off thy shoulders and swim across the floor. 

Jafar 
What shall happen, shall happen. But here is one 
who is occupied in meditation, and is aloof from the 
circumstances of the moment: let us invite him to 
Council. 

Caliph 
Ho, thou Hassan! What occupies thy spirit? 

Hassan 
I am examining the square of carpet. It is of cheap 
manufacture, inferior dye and unpleasant pattern. 

Caliph 
Art thou a carpet dealer? 



ACT II HASSAN 55 

Hassan 
No, sir, I am a confectioner. 

Caliph 
And I am the Caliph. 

Hassan 

As my heart surmised, Commander of the Faith- 
ful! {Performs the ceremonies prescribed.) 

Caliph 

Canst thou give me one gleam of hope of salvation, 
Hassan the Confectior.er? If not, Masrur shall cut off 
all our heads, beginning with thine. I dare not fall into 
that man's hands alive. 

Hassan 
But I dare! spare me, spare me! What of the 
man who put me in the basket? He will know where 
we are, and come to our rescue. 

Caliph 
No good — no good. I would rather depend on the 
mercy of Rafi than on the whim of Ishak. Masrur, 
vmsheathe. There is no hope. 

Hassan 

Thy pardon on thy servant: there is hope! Behold 
the light! 

{Points to crack between bottom of the iron 
wall and floor, toivards the balcony.) 



56 HASSAN ACT II 

Caliph 



irp' 



By the seven lakes of Hell, we are not mice 

Hassan 
A mouse could not pass. But what, Master, of 



a message? 



Caliph 



A message? 



Hassan 
Written out black on paper, and dropped into the 
street. 

Caliph 
Ho, Jafar, thou art a fool to this man! Take out 
thy pen and write. Warn the Captain of the Soldiers. 
Warn the Police. Describe our position. Offer the 
Government of Three Provinces to the man who picks 
up the paper. Write clearly, write quickly. Time's 
flying. Write, and we are saved. Write for the Sal- 
vation of Bagdad; write for the safety of Islam! 
Hassan, the Confectioner, if we are rescued I will fill 
thy mouth with gold! 

(Jafar having written on a long roll of 
paper, they thrust it in the crack.) 

Hassan 

No: at the corner here, where there is no balcony 
and the wall drops straight into the street. 

(Masrur pokes out the paper with his sivord.) 



ACT II HASSAN 57 

Caliph 
And now how shall we employ the time of waiting 
for our deliverance? 

Jafar 
I shall meditate upon the mutability of human affairs. 

Masrur 
And I shall sharpen my sword upon my thigh. 

Hassan 

And I shall study the reasons of the excessive ugli- 
ness of the pattern of this carpet. 

Caliph 
Hassan, I will join thee: thou art a man of taste. 

Scene II 

(See Act I, last Scene.) 
Again the street outside the house — the Street of the 
Fountain, with the balcony of Rafi and the 
balcony of Yasmin opposite. Cold light before 
dawn. 

{On the steps of the Fountain, two tired Mendicants 
asleep. One slowly rubs his eyes and looks round 
him. A paper comes floating down. One tired 
Man lazily catches it.) 

First Loiterer 
Here comes a new chapter of the Koran falling down 
from Heaven. 



Iff 



58 HASSAN ACT II 

Second Loiterer 
Is it written, Abdu? 

Abdu 

It is written, Ali. 

Ali 

Read what is written, Abdu. 

Abdu 
I cannot read. Am I a schoolmaster? 

{Folds paper, puts it in his belt, and pre- 
pares to sleep again. Several interesting 
Orientals pass by.) 



Abdu! 



I sleep. 



Ali 



Abdu 



Ali 

I can read: give me the paper. 

Abdu 
I am asleep: get up and take it from my belt if you 
want it, Ya Ali, I am heavy with a great sleep, like a 
tortoise in November. 

Ali 
Ya Abdu, I am too languishing to move. It is a 
paper and it is written. It does not matter. To-morrow 
or the next day it will be read. 



ACT II HASSAN 59 

Abdu 
To-morrow or the next day I shall wake and pass it 
to you. 

{Interval: more interesting Orientals go by.) 

Ali 
(With sudden inspiration) Blow me the paper, 
Abdu. 

Abdu 

Alas, Allah sent thee to trouble the world! 

(Abdu blows the paper over. Ali with infinite 
difficulty spells it out, murmuring:) 

Ali 

Ha, alif, alif re wow wow 'ain Jeem — ah, ye blessed 
ones in Paradise, is it thus ye write a Jeem? Nun — 
but art thou a nun, letter, or a drunkard's Qaf? 
Verily an ape has written this with his tail: I have 
the second line. {With a start) Ho, Abdu, whence 
came this? Do not pretend to sleep. Answer me. 

Abdu 
From the sky: how I know? 

Ali 

Let me look at the sky. {Rolls on his back and 
stares upward) I tell you, Abdu, a mighty joker has 
flung this from the balcony. 

Abdu 
Allah plague him and his pen and thee! Is there 
no peace in the world? 



60 HASSAN ACT II 

Ali 
Here it is written, and do thou listen, Abdu, for 
this is the strangest of the strange writings that are 
strange: "Whoever findeth this paper, know that 
the Caliph is in the house above, a prisoner, and his 
friends prisoners, and in the extremity of danger, he 
and they, with all Bagdad. Let the rescue be swift and 
sudden, but above all secret. The iron walls must be 
lifted from beneath. And send a man at once to the 
Guard, fortunate discoverer, to warn them to protect 
the palace against the Beggars of Bagdad, and thou shalt 
be made Governor of Three Provinces. Signed, Jafar, 
the Vizier." {Bursting into laughter) Three Prov- 
inces, well I know tlieir Three Provinces! Some rich 
young reveller hopes to play a game with poor old Ali, 
even as a game was played on the son of Abdallah, 
whom they dressed as a woman and placed in the 
Grand Vizier's Harem, and his reward came hailing 
down on his toes. {In a lower voice) And I tell you, 
Abdu, what if the Caliph were in the house and his 
friends? What if this were true? Who would believe 
me? Who am I to rescue the Caliph? I never meddle 
in politics. 

Abdu 

May the great gripes settle on thee and on the 
Caliph and the Mother of the Caliph. Shall I not 
sleep? And now there comes a disturbance down the 
road. Ya, Jehannum, the Police! 

(Chief of Police tvith Ishak.) 



ACT II HASSAN 61 

ISHAK 

I tell you, I do not know precisely where I left 
them. It was night. It was somewhere in this quarter. 
It may have been this balcony they went to or that, 
but there are a thousand balconies. It was above a 
fountain, but there are a million fountains. I tell you 
they always come back. Have you not already twenty 
such scares as these for the safety of the Caliph? 

Chief of Police 
Never and on no preceding occasion has his exalted 
name been so long delayed in his return to the palace. 
The day is dawning, 

IsHAK 

I tell you, if you do find him you will get no thanks, 

man of arms. Will you dare to unstick the Ruler 
of the Moslem World from the embrace of his latest 
slave girl or dash the cup of pleasure from his reluc- 
tant hand? 

Chief of Police 
I tell you, if you do not find him, man of letters, 

1 will have you impaled upon a monstrous pen. 

{Seizes him.) 

ISHAK 

Thou beastly, blood-drinking brute and bloated 
bully, take off thy stable-reeking hands. 

Chief of Police 
Yallah, these poets. They talk in rhyme. 



62 HASSAN ACT II 

Ali 

(Who has risen and salaamed, advancing) I pray 
you, Sirs, . . . 

Chief of Police 

thou maggot! Barest thou address us? 

Au 

1 pray you only regard . . . 

Chief of Police 
I pray you only remove, or I will split you from the 
top. 

ISHAK 

Do you not see that he has a paper, and that his 
manners are superior to yours, caplain of Police? 
Let me look at thy paper. . . . Ah — ah. Whence came 
this, virtuous wanderer? 

Ali 

From that balcony, may thy slave be forgiven! 

Chief of Police 
This is a very important clue. Let us break in the 
door. 

ISHAK 
There is no door. But first of all send word to the 
Palace Guard. 

Chief of Police 
{To a soldier) Ali. {Tq the other Ali, who runs 



ACT II Hassan 63 

and says: Excellence, I hear and obey) Not thou, 
fool. Did Allah make the name Ali for thee alone? 
Who art thou that I should address thee? Are there 
not ten thousand Alis in Bagdad, and wilt thou lift 
up thy head, worm, when I say Ali? (To Policeman) 
Here is my ring. Take this paper, and run with all 
thy might and show it to the Captain of the Palace 
guard. 





Policeman 


I hear and obey. 


(Starts off) 




ISHAK 


{Stopping him) 


Wait! 



Chief of Police 
What right have you to stop my mem, you bastard 
son of a quill-bearing barn-fowl? 

ISHAK 
Since when had a bludgeoning policeman the prac- 
tical good sense of a thought-breathing poet? Tell 
them, Ali, to send a few men with levers and ladders. 

Chief of Police 
It is well ordered: run, run, Ali! 

ISHAK 

You other Ali, who brought the paper . . . 

Ali 
Master? 



64 HASSAN ACT II 

ISHAK 

How long is it since any paper was thrown from 
the balcony? 

Ali 

How do I know time? The time to go to market 
and buy a melon. 

Chief of Police 
By the great pit of torment, this swine-faced has had 
the paper a good hour! By the red blaze of damnation, 
thou maggot, why didst thou not run with this at once 
to the Palace Guard? 

Ali 
I had a great fear, and I thought it was a jest. 

Chief of Police 
A jest! Rivers of blood, a jest! The life of the 
Caliph of Bagdad, a jest! The safety of the Empire 
a jest! I knew thee a traitor from thy face. I will 
teach thee jesting. I will teach thee fear. Ho, Mahmud, 
Zia, Rustem, down with his head and up with his heels. 

Ali 
{As his feet are looped into the pole to receive the 
bastinado) Ya, Abdu, you had the letter first, it is 
yours. Will you not claim it and the reward? Alas, 
that the Governor of Three Provinces should be treated 
thus! 

Abdu 
Do I meddle in politics? Hit him hard, Execu- 



ACT II HASSAN 65 

tioner, for he is a great disturber of peaceful citizens. 
But as for me, Ali, lest my sleep be troubled by thy 
groaning, I will make my way a little further on. 

(Exit.) 

{The Executioners proceed with their ivork, 

but stop on entrance of Captain of the 

Military with Soldiers.) 
{On the balcony opposite house where Caliph 

is imprisoned appears Yasmin.) 

Yasmin 
Look, look, Selim! there's a man being beaten. 

Selim 
Come in quick! this is a riot or some trouble; come in 
quick, and shut the shutters fast. 

Yasmin 
You are a valiant protection indeed for frail-as-a 
rose ladies in danger's hour! 

{They remain at the window.) 

Captain of Military 

{To Chief of Police) Sir. 

Chief of Police 

Sir. 

Captain of Military 
{Saluting) Captain of the Victorious Army, at your 
service ! 



66 HASSAN ACT II 

Chief of Police 
(Saluting) Chief of the August Police, at yours. 

Captain of Military 
(Bowing) I am honoured. 

Chief of Police 
(Bowing) I am overwhelmed. 

ISHAK 

Come, Sirs, brush away, I implore you, the cobwebs 
of ceremony with the broom of expedition. 

Chief of Police 
Sir, when men of action meet, the place of the man 
of letters is inside his pencase. 

Captain of Military 
A moment! Ere we proceed. Chief of Police, may 
I ask why this man is undergoing punishment? 

Chief of Police 
Since your excellency deigns to enquire, for urgent 
reasons of police. 

Captain of Military 
They must have been very urgent indeed before you 
would permit such an inopportune disturbance outside 
the very house where our Lord the Caliph is imprisoned. 
You have seriously impaired our chances of a speedy and 
effective rescue. 



ACT II HASSAN 67 

Chief of Police 

{Drawing his sword and whirling it about) Thou 

melon head, thou dung pig, thou brother of disaster, 

get thee hence with thy knock-kneed band of fatherless 

brigands, ere I have thee arrested for uimatural crime. 

Captain of Military 
Out with thy sword, thou big-bellied snatcher up 
of burglars, thou manacler of little boys, thou terror 
of the peaceful market. I will teach thee to insult the 
slaughterers of the infidel host. 

IsHAK 
(Intercepting the Combatants) Is this a time for 
indecent brawling? Quick, where are the ladders? 

A Soldier 
(Pompously) In the rear, Sir, in the rear. 

(The ladders are brought along.) 

Chief of Police 
(To Policeman) Place a ladder. 

Captain of Military 
(To Soldiers) Place a ladder. 

(Each goes up his ladder at the same time: 
bang at the iron wall and are answered: 
shout for levers which are procured, and 
. assistance which speedily arrives. The iron 
wall is lifted up, and Caliph and the Rest 
disclosed seated peaceably awaiting their 
deliverance, the lamp still burning.) 



68 HASSAN ACT II 

Chief of Police 
My royal Master! 

Captain of Military 
August Lord. 

Chief and Captain 
(Together) I have saved thee, Master. 

{Each attempts to seize the Caliph.) 

Chief of Pouce 
Honourable Police! . . . 

Captain of Military 
Honourable Military! . . . 

Chief of Police 
It has been the high privilege of this grovelling slave 
to rescue the Lamp of the World. I shall carry 
him down. 

Captain of Military 
Permit me to observe, fire-spitting Battle Cleaver, 
that I was first up this ladder, and though I tremble 
to obscure the Sun's Brilliance with my dirty hand, 
yet it is I who have the prior claim. 

(Masrur pushes them aside, and assists the 
Caliph down the ladder. Jafar and Hassan 
follow. Shouts of "Long live the Caliph'^ 
from all the people gathered in the street. 
The Soldiers salute. The Cauph raises his 
hand. Silence. 



ACT II HASSAN 69 

Caliph 
Is my Palace safe? 

Masrur 
Lord and Master, we pray so. 

Caliph 
And my people? 

Jafar 
Around thee, Lord and Master. 

Yasmin 
{From her balcony) By the Prophet, here is Hassan 
with the Caliph! 

Caliph 
Are we all saved? 

Masrur 
All, hy the providence of Allah. 

Jafar 
And the wisdom of Hassan. 

Caliph 
And the Guard warned? 

Captain of Military 
All warned and at their posts, my Lord. 



70 HASSAN ACT II 

Caliph 

Allah, deliver our enemies into their hands! Let 
Hassan come before me. 

Hassan 
(Prostrating himself) Master! 

Caliph 
{Raising him) Rise, Hassan. This Hassan, yester- 
day a stranger, has to-night by his skill and invention, 
saved my life and rescued this city from a greater 
peril than my death. 

Crowd 

May it be far! 

Caliph 

Therefore here and now, in the presence of all, I 
nominate Hassan to my court, to hold rank among my 
subjects second to none save to Jafar, my Grand Vizier. 

Yasmin 
{Who has been at her balcony with Selim) Allah! 

Crowd 
Honour to Hassan! Honour to Hassan! 

Hassan 
Master, I sold confectionery in the market. 

Jafar 
Thou shalt now confection the sweets of prosperity. 



ACT II HASSAN 71 

ISHAK 

(To Hassan) Why, Hassan! You are the man with 
the broken lute. 

Caliph 
Is that the voice of Ishak? 

ISHAK 

It is the voice of Ishak that has often sung to you. 

Caliph 
Why did you abandon me, Ishak, and flee into the 
night? I do not know if I shall forgive you. 

ISHAK 
I was weary of you, Haroun-al-Raschid. 

Caliph 
And if I weary of you? 

ISHAK 

You will one day or another, and you will have me 
slain. 

Caliph 
And what of this day that dawns? 

Ishak 
Dawn is the hour when most men die. 

Caliph 
Your death is granted you, Ishak; you have but 
to kneel. 



72 HASSAN ACT II 

{A red glow on the horizon.) 

ISHAK 

{As he kneels calmly) Why have they pinned the 
carpet of execution on the sky? 

Masrur 
It is the Caliph's dawn. 

Jafar 
Thy dawn, Master! 

ISHAK 

Thy dawn, Master of the World, thy dawn; 

The hour the lilies open on the lawn, 

The hour the grey wings pass beyond the moun- 
tains, 

The hour of silence, when we hear the fountains, 

The hour that dreams are brighter and winds 
colder, 

The hour that young love wakes on a white 
shoulder, 

master of the world, the Persian Dawn. 

That hour, Master, shall be bright for thee: 

Thy merchants chase the morning down the sea. 

The braves who fight thy war unsheathe the 
sabre. 

The slaves who work thy mines are lashed to 
labour. 

For thee the waggons of the world are drawn — 

The ebony of night, the red of dawn! 



ACT II HASSAN 73 

Caliph 
Sheathe your sword, Masrur! Would you kill my 
friend? 

Masrur 
I hear and obey. 

Caliph 
I mjist go swiftly to my palace. But to you, Ishak, 
I leave the care of this man you sent up to me in the 
basket, who has proved the salvation of Bagdad. Teach 
him the ceremonies and regulations. Is my chair 
ready ? 

Bearers 
Ready, Lord and Master. 

{Exit Caliph in chair, and Jafar and Crowd; 
IsHAK signs to those who would kiss 
Hassan's feet to leave him.) 

Yasmin 
{On balcony opposite. Giving Selim a great clout 
in the ear) Go, leave my sight, you fool. I shall 
burst with fury. You made me insult Hassan, and now 
he is going to court. 

Selim 
{Astonished) Eh, Yasmin, Yasmin, how could I 
know? 

ISHAK 

Ah, bismillah, I had not forgotten you, man with 
the broken lute. 



74 HASSAN ACT II 

Hassan 
The broken lute? The broken lute? 

ISHAK 

Here you were lying, at this fountain, like one dead. 

Hassan 
Was it here? Is that the balcony? Who are you? 
Why do you mock me? What do you know? 

Ishak 
Quietly, friend, quietly, your head is weak with joy. 

Hassan 
With joy? Do I know what is true or false? Do 
I know if the Caliph is the Caliph? And if the Caliph 
is the Caliph may he not mock me too? What is joy? 
Let me look at that balcony for joy. I dare not look, 
I fear she is there. Ah, it is she! 

(Yasmin takes the rose from her hair and 
flings it at Hassan, then retires within.) 

Ishak 
Are you fortunate in love as well as in life, 
Hassan? But come away. This conduct ill beseems 
a minister of state: you are not unobserved. 

Hassan 
I am coming. The rose is poisoned. 

Ishak 
friend, is this talk for the ardent lover? 



ACT II HASSAN 75 

Hassan 

Are you my friend? You, Ishak, the glorious singer 
of Islam! And if you are my friend, are you like 
those who were my friends before? 

Ishak 
Last night, I found you lying like a filthy corpse 
beneath this window, but I knew by your lute and 
your countenance that you were a poet, like myself, 
and I was sorry to think you dead. 

Hassan 
A poet? I? I am a confectioner. 

Ishak 
You are my friend, Hassan. 

Hassan 
Then consider this rose. This rose is more bitter than 
colocynth. For look you, friend, had she not flung 
this rose, I would have said she hated me and loved 
another; it is well. She had the right to hate and 
love. She could hate and she could love. But now, 
ah, tell me, you who seem to be a friend, are all you 
poets liars? 

Ishak 
Ya, Hassan, but we tell excellent lies. 

Hassan 

Why do you say that beauty has a meaning? Why 
do you not say that beauty is as hollow as a drum? 
Why do you not say it is sold? 



76 HASSAN ACT II 

ISHAK 

All this disillusionment because a fair lady flung you 
a rose ! 

Hassan 

Last night I baked sugar and she flung me water: 
this morning I bake gold and she flings me a rose. 
Empty, empty, I tell you, friend, all the blue sky. 

ISHAK 

Come, forget her and come away. I will instruct you 
in the pleasures of the court. 

Hassan 
Forget, forget? rose of morning and rose of 
evening, vainly for me shall you fade on domes of 
ebony or azure. This rose has faded, and this rose is 
bitter, and this rose is nothing but the world. 

CURTAIN 



ACT III 

Scene I 

The garden of the Caliph's palace: in front of a 
pavilion. The Caliph: Hassan in fine raiment, 
a sword of honour at his side. 

Caliph 
Yes, what the chief Eunuch told you is all true, 
my Hassan. Our late host, the King of the Beggars, 
was captured hiding in the gutter of his roof. This 
evening I shall judge him and his crew in full divan. 
And in the divan shalt thou appear, Hassan, clothed 
ih thy robe of ceremony, and seated on my right hand. 

Hassan 

Alas, Serene Splendour, thy servant is a man of 
humble origin and limited desires. I am one who 
would obey the old poet's behest: 

Give all thy day to dreaming and all thy night to sleep: 
Let not Ambition's Tyger devour Contentment's Sheep ! 

I am not one to open my mouth at divans, or to strut 
among courtiers in robes of state. Sir, excuse me 
from these things. Dispose thy favour like a high 
golden wall, and protect the life of thy servant from 
the wind of complication. But at evening, when God 
flings roses through the sky, call me then to' some 
calm pavilion, and let us hear Ishak play and let us 

77 



78 HASSAN ACT III 

hear Ishak siiig, till you forget you are Lord of all the 
World, and I forget that I am a base-born tradesman; 
till we discover the speech of things that have no life, 
and know what the clods of earth are saying to the 
roots of the garden trees. 

Caliph 
Have no fear. You shall inhabit the place I shall 
assign you in untroubled peace, and meditate till your 
beard grows into the soil and you become wiser than 
Aflatun. But in this case you are a witness and must 
be present at my divan, be it but for this once only. And 
you shall call me Emir of the Faithful, Redresser of 
Wrong, the Shadow of Good on Earth, and Peacock 
of the World. But in this garden you are Hassan, and 
I am your friend Haroun, and you must address me as 
a friend a friend. 

Hassan 

{Kissing Caliph's hand) master, you speak gently, 
but I must fear you all the more. 

Caliph 
But why? I am but a kindly man. I love single- 
heartedness in men as I love simplicity in my palace. 
There you have seen floors with but one carpet — but that 
carpet like a meadow. You have seen walls with but 
one curtain — but that curtain a sunset, on the sea. You 
have seen white rooms all naked marble: but they await 
my courtiers all clothed like flowers. If, therefore, I 
avoid complexity in the matter of walls and floors, shall 
I not be simple in the things of heart and soul? Shall 
I not, Hassan, be just your friend? . 



ACT III HASSAN 79 

Hassan 
Master, I find thy friendship like thy palace, endowed 
with all the charm of beauty and the magic of surprise. 
As thou knowest, I am but a man of the streets of Bagdad, 
and there men say, "The Caliph's Palace, Mashallah! 
The walls are stiff with gold and the ceilings plated 
with silver, and the urinals thereof are lined with 
turquoise blue." And hearing men say this, many a 
time hath Hassan the Confectioner stroked the chin of 
Hassan the Confectioner saying, "0 Hassan, thy back 
parlour is less ugly than that, with its tub for boiling 
sugar and one Bokhara good carpet hanging on the 
wall. And twelve months did I work at the tub, boiling 
sugar to buy that carpet." 

Caliph 
What a man you are for poetry and carpets! When 
you tread on a carpet, you drop your eyes to earth to 
catch the pattern; and when you hear a poem, you raise 
your eyes to heaven to hear the tune. Who ever saw a 
confectioner like this! When did you learn poetry, 
Hassan of my heart? 

Hassan 

In that great school, the Market of Bagdad. For thee, 
Master of the World, poetry is a princely diversion: 
but for us it was a deliverance from Hell. Allah made 
poetry a cheap thing to buy and a simple thing to under- 
stand. He gave men dreams by night that they might 
learn to dream by day. Men who work hard have 
special need of these dreams. All the town of Bagdad 
is passionate for poetry, Master. Dost thou not know 



80 HASSAN ACT III 

what great crowds gather to hear the epic of Antari 
sung in the streets at evening? I have seen cobblers 
weep and butchers bury their great faces in their hands! 

Caliph 
By Eblis and the powers of Hell, should I not know 
this, and know that therein lies the secret of the strength 
of Islam? In poems and in tales alone shall live the 
eternal memory of this city when I am dust and thou 
art dust, when the Bedouin shall build his hut upon my 
garden and drive his plough beyond the ruins of my 
palace, and all Bagdad is broken to the ground. Ah, 
if there shall ever arise a nation whose people have 
forgotten poetry or whose poets have forgotten the 
people, though they send their ships round Taprobane 
and their armies across the hills of Hindustan, though 
their city be greater than Babylon of old, though they 
mine a league into earth or mount to the stars on 
wings — what of them? 

Hassan 

They will be a dark patch upon the world. 

Caliph 
Well said! By your luck you have saved the life 
of the Caliph, Hassan; but by your conversation 
you have won the friendship of Haroun. Indeed — 
but at what are you gazing as if enchanted? 

Hassan 
What a beautiful fountain, with the silver dolphin 
and the naked boy. 



ACT III HASSAN 81 

Caliph 
A Greek of Constantinople made it, who came travel- 
ling hither in the days of my fatiier, the Caliph El Madhi 
(may earth be gentle to his body and Paradise refresh- 
ing to his soul ! ) . He showed this fountain to my father, 
who was exceptionally pleased, and asked the Greek if 
he could make more as fine. "A hundred," replied the 
delighted infidel. Whereupon my father cried, "Impale 
this pig." Which having been done, this fountain re- 
mains the loveliest in the world. 

Hassan 

{With anguish) Fountain, dost thou never run 
with blood? 

Caliph 
Why, what is the matter, Hassan? 

Hassan 
You have told a tale of death and tyranny, Master 
of the World. 

Caliph 
{In a sudden and towering rage) Do you accuse my 
father of tyranny, fellow, for slaying a filthy 
Christian? 

Hassan 

{Prostrating himself) I meant no offence. My life 
is at your feet. But you bade me talk to you as a 
friend. 



82 HASSAN ACT III 

Caliph 
Not Ishak, not Ishak himself, who has been my friend 
for years, would dare address me thus. (Bursting into 
laughter) Rise, Hassan. Thy impudence hath a mon- 
strous beauty, like the hind quarters of an elephant. 

Hassan 
Forgive me, forgive me. 

Caliph 

I forgive you with all my heart, but, I advise you, 
speak in conformity with your character and of things 
you understand, and never leave the Garden of Art for 
the Palace of Action. Trouble not your head with 
the tyranny of Princes, or you may catch a cold therein 
from the Wind of Complication. Keep to your poetry 
and carpets, Hassan, and make no reference to politics, 
for which even the market of Bagdad is an insufficient 
school. 

Hassan 
[Dolefully) I hear and obey. 

Caliph 
Forget it now; set your mind on pleasant things. 
Have you noticed this little pavilion in front of which 
we have talked so long? This is your little house, good 
Hassan, where you shall find a shelter from the wind 
you so much dislike and all other blasts that harm or 
chill. 

Hassan 

My little house? 



ACT III HASSAN 83 

Caliph 
I chose it for you, knowing your disposition. Here 
in this remote corner of the garden you will hear no 
noise of street or palace, but enjoy complete repose. 

Hassan 

(With rapture) Mine, this little house? Mine, this 
sweet-scented door! 

Caliph 

Knock on it and see. 

(Hassan knocks. The door opens and Alder, 
Willow, Juniper, and Tamarisk appear. 
Tamarisk, the youngest, has somewhat of 
a mouse's squeak.) 



Alder 
{To Caliph ivith prostration) 0, Emir of the Faith- 



ful! 



Willow 
(To Caliph with prostration) 0, Redresser of 
Wrong ! 

Juniper 
{To Cauph ivith prostration) 0, Shadow of God 
on Earth! 

Tamarisk 
{To Caliph with prostration) 0, Peacock of the 
World! 



84 HASSAN ACT III 

Alder 
(To Hassan ivith prostration) Master! 

Willow 
{To Hassan with prostration) Master! 

Juniper 
^To Hassan with prostration) Master! 

Tamarisk 
(To Hassan with prostration) Master! 

{They stand, their hands in their sleeves, across 
the doorway). 

Hassan 

But these are the slaves of the King of the Beggars, 
who bathed me, anointed me, and brought back my 
soul into my eyes, whence a woman had all but driven 
it for ever. 

Caliph 
I have rescued them from the ruin of their master's 
house as their polite and finished manners deserve, and 
I have given them to you since you are likely to need 
and appreciate their service. 

Hassan 

And so faces not altogether strange shall welcome 
me to my home. {Kneels and kisses Caliph's hand.) 

Caliph 
Say not a word. For the pen of happiness hath 



ACT III HASSAN 85 

written on thy face the ode of gratitude. {To Slaves) 
Is all ready? 

Alder 

(Pompously) Ready, Gardener of the Vale of 
Islam. 

Willow 
Prepared, Lion. . . 

Caliph 
Enough! Conduct your master into his house, shew 
him all there is inside, and serve him faithfully. 

Enter with them, Hassan; delicious has been our 
converse, but Jafar, the Vizier, has been awaiting me 
some two hours. {As Hassan is about to prostrate 
himself) No, it is thus Haroun takes leave of his 
friends. 

{Kisses him on both cheeks. Hassan watches 
till he is out of sight, pensive. Then he 
goes to the fountain and observes it a mo- 
ment. Then he advances slowly to the fold- 
ing door of the pavilion, which Alder and 
Willow hold open for him.) 

Alder 
Fortunate be thy entry! 

Willow 
Prosperous thy sojourn! 

Juniper 
Quiet thy days! 



86 HASSAN ACT III 

Tamarisk 
And riotous thy nights! 

Scene II 
The private apartment ivitliin the pavilion. A bed. 
Fine furniture. A window ivith a vieiv on the 
garden. 

{Enter Hassan followed by his Slaves.) 

Hassan 

In that apartment, therefore, I shall receive guests. 
But in tliis apartment, whom? 

Alder 
Such ladies, Master, as you desire to honour. 

Hassan 
Yes, yes. I must visit the market and see. {Staring 
at the floor, with a start.) Wulluhi, what is that? 

Tamarisk 
The carpet, Master. 

Hassan 

One of the wonderful new carpets of Ispahan. A 
hunting scene. The Prince. His followers. Leopards 
and stags and three tigers, and an elephant — his head 
only. 0, amazing carpet. And everywhere great scar- 
let flowers, very stiff and fine. 0, exquisite carpet. I 
have never seen so bright a scarlet. {fFith a sudden 
earnestness) Tell me. You were his slaves . . . ? 



ACT III HASSAN 87 

Alder 
Master? 

Hassan 
Well, well, we will not talk of it. How clearly that 
fountain sounds outside with its little splash! 

Alder 

I pray you. Master. The Caliph said you should 
particularly observe this mirror with the carven frame. 

Hassan 

(Looking at himself) By the Prophet, what a 
Phoenix I have become! Provided I do not stumble 
on my sword. 

Willow 
The Caliph hoped you should not fail to remark 
this exquisitely upholstered couch. 

Juniper 

The Caliph hoped you would admire these toilet 
requisites in alabaster. 

Tamarisk 
The Caliph hopes you will make good use of this 
very slender whip for our correction. 

Hassan 
A whip? For your correction, slaves of charm? 
Am I the man to spoil good almond paste Avith streaks 
of cochineal? 



88 HASSAN ACT III 

Alder 
Thou art pleased, my Master? 

Hassan 
Pleased? Look at the acacia tapping at my window; 
one night it will come in softly and fling its moonlit 
blossom at my feet. But this is no place for a man to 
live alone. Without a doubt I must visit the market. 
They have Circassians; I have always wanted a Circas- 
sian, She must be very young. ... I have not 
finished the excellencies of the room. These three 
chests, what do they contain? 

Alder 
This chest, Master, contains your new robes. One 
of them is embroidered with red carnations and silver 
bells. 

Hassan 
Was there ever generosity like this! 

Willow 
This chest, Master, contains curtains, hangings, and 
cushions for the sofa. One of the cushions is embel- 
lished with fifteen peacocks. 

Hassan 
Fifteen peacocks! And all those peacocks dumb! 

Juniper 
This chest, Master, contains fresh linen for your 
bed. All marked with your name. 



ACT III HASSAN 89 

Hassan 

Marked with my name! And what have you to say, 
Tamarisk? 

Tamarisk 
That bed . . . 

Hassan 
That bed is not a chest. But doubtless it also con- 
tains fresh linen marked with my name. 

Tamarisk 
{Tremulous) That bed contains a most beautiful 
lady. 

Hassan 
(Jumping) What? 

Tamarisk 

A most beautiful lady. She said she must see you, 
and gave me ten dinars. 

Yasmin 
(^5 Hassan tears aside the curtains of the bed) 
Hassan ! 

[She is dressed in a cloak and veiled.) 

Hassan 
What voice? 

Yasmin 
Hassan. {She unveils.) 



90 HASSAN ACT III 

Hassan 
Thou! 

Yasmin 
I came: I hid: I waited. 

Hassan 
Why? 

Yasmin 
Why does a woman hide in the bed of a man? 

Hassan 
(Furiously) You dared! Stay here, slaves. Will 
you leave me at this moment, you fools who let this 
woman in? (To Yasmin) You dared? 

Yasmin 
What is there a beautiful woman dare not dare? 

Hassan 
But your impudence is vile. Out of it! Get you 
back to Selim. 

Yasmin 
I have left Selim. 

Hassan 
Left Selim to come to me? 

Yasmin 
I found Selim a coward and a fool. I have dis- 



ACT III HASSAN 91 

covered in you a man of taste and valour. How could 
I have known before? But what matter? Am I not 
white enough to follow the caravans of Wealth and 
Power? {Flinging out her arms) Is this for Selim 
or that for Selim? 

Hassan 

Back to him, and no more words! You darken the 
world before my eyes. If he is a fool and a coward, 
you are nothing but a whore. Go, or my slaves shall 
fling you head foremost down my steps. 

Yasmin 
I have left Selim because he proved a coward, a 
fool, a poor man and a nobody. I have come to you 
because you are rich, famous, and a man of taste. The 
day you fall into disfavour (may it be far, my 
Master!) I shall undoubtedly leave you. Till that day 
you will find me faithful. I am that which you call 
me — but I bring you a fair merchandise. 

Hassan 
I thank you, seller of yourself. I buy no tainted 
meat. I beg you seek another market, and that ex- 
tremely soon. 

Yasmin 
{Rubbing her face and rising lightly) I did not 
know I had a taint, Master. The mirror must de- 
ceive me. But merchandise must be well inspected be- 
fore its inferiority is assured. It must be seen and 
touched. Will you see and will you touch? 



92 HASSAN ACT III 

Hassan 
[Stepping back) Oh, away, away! Why did you 
seek me out? Is it to rain back my words upon my 
face? Or do you hope once more to shew me yourself 
limb after limb in the embrace of a new Selim? I 
pray you, however, spare the water from the jug. My 
fire needs no quenching. 

Yasmin 

(Suppliant) Be generous. It beseems the Caliph's 
friend to be generous. If I have made you jealous, do 
I not offer you a sumptuous revenge? 

Hassan 
Rise, take your pardon, and depart. Shall I tell you 
again? If you need money, tlie slaves will give it 
you at the door. 

Yasmin 
You are as cold as ice. 

Hassan 

You are brazen. 

Yasmin 
I am brave. Farewell, I see you are not a man of 
love. 

Hassan 
Farewell. And defile no more the word love with 
your painted lips. 



ACT III HASSAN 93 

Yasmin 
(Lingering at the door) Yet there is little of love's 
language that I do not know. When the bird of night 
sings on the bough of the tree that rustles outside your 
window, and the shadows creep away from the moon 
across the floor, I could have sung you a song sweeter 
than the nightingale's, and shown you a whiteness whiter 
than the moon. 



Hassan 



Ah — go ! 



Yasmin 
Because I was cruel could I not be kind? Be- 
cause you can buy my body, can you buy my soul? 
Because I am of the people have I no songs to sing? 
Because I have sinned have I no secret to impart? 
Go to market, Hassan, and buy your Circassian 
girl. And one day you shall say: Had Yasmin but 
lied to me of love, it were better than this fool's 
sincerity. 



Hassan 



Ah, leave me! 



Yasmin 
There are lilies by the thousand in the meadows: 
there are roses by the thousand in the gardens, and all 
as like as like — but there is only one shape in the 
world like mine. There is only one face in the world 
where these eyebrows arch and these eyes flash — where 
the nostrils are set just so, and the lips are parted 



94 HASSAN ACT III 

thus. There is no other arm beneath the sky that has 
here this curve and here this dimple, and here the light 
soft golden hairs. There are rows and rows of young 
fair girls in the Caliph's harem and many as fair as I, 
but none whose veins are these veins, whose flesh is 
this flesh, fiery and cool, whose body swings like mine 
upon the heel. {Flinging off her cloak) Will you see 
and will you touch? {Approaching) Will you see 
and will you touch? {Pulling her arm round his neck) 
Will you touch? 

Hassan 
{With a shout as he pushes her back) Slaves, tear 
off this woman! 

Yasmin 
, {As the Slaves force her back) Eh, your slaves 
are violent! 

Hassan 

{To Slaves) Hold her! 

Yasmin 
But you must let me go. 

Hassan 
I will not let you go. 

Yasmin 
Come, I see you are but a sour fellow, for whom 
pleasure is but vain. I will take away the hateful. 
Let me pass. 

{She attempts to escape.) 



ACT III HASSAN 95 

Hassan 
{To his Slaves) Hold her! 

(Alder and Willow grip each an arm. 
Juniper grips her ankles. She is held stand- 
ing. Her cloak falls. She is clothed in 
short jacket and trousers of white silk with 
a pattern of blue flowers: her waist is 
naked, in the Persian style.) 

Yasmin 
Ah — what will you do to me? You forgave me. 

Hassan 

(To Yasmin) Ah, I forgave you the insults and 
all that hour of shame. And Allah shall forgive you 
your trade if Allah wills. But you have pressed your 
foul body on mine — you have breathed your poison 
on my cheek, and twined your snakes (God break them! ) 
round my breast. Prepare then to die, for it is not 
right for the sake of mankind that you should walk 
any more upon the roads of earth. 

Yasmin 
{Quietly, but in terror) To die! What do you 
mean! No, no! Ah, murder, ah! 

Hassan 

Do you hear the fountain dripping — drop by drop — 
drop by drop? So shall your blood fall on my carpet 
and colour me more red flowers. 

Yasmin 
{Recovering) I am not afraid. 



96 HASSAN ACT III 

Hassan 
Do you expect mercy? I left my mercy with my 
sweets. For all tliese years I have been a humble man, 
of soft and kindly disposition — such a man as the world 
and a woman hate. But now I shall never again be 
the fool of my fellows. Now all Bagdad shall know 
and say: "We thought Hassan a mild man and a kind 
man; our children stole his sweets and he did but stroke 
his beard, while to a beggar he had known three days 
he would instantly lend three dinars. And behold, he 
has become powerful and hath cut down the body of 
Yasmin the infamous who had done him wrong, as a 
woodman cuts a tree. Yallah, our knees shall bend 
when Hassan goes driving by!" Yasmin, stiffen your 
sinews and close your eyes. 

Yasmin 
Not with the sword, not with the sword! 

Hassan 
Let me taste the ecstasy of power. Let me drink of 
tlie fulness of life. Let me be one of those who con- 
quer because they do not care. 

{He drc^ws the sword: Yasmin cries out loud.) 
You are Yasmin, the poor, the beautiful, the proud: 
1 am Hassan, rich and passionate and strong. You 
have hurt me, I will hurt you: it is the rule of the 
game, and the way of the world. Do I hate you? 
I do not know or care. Do I love you? — then love 
shall drive tlie blade in deep. You are the world's 
own stupendous harlot, and I will cut you clean in two. 
{He swings th^ sivord over his head to strike.) 



ACT III HASSAN 97 

Yasmin 

{With a shout at once of terror and triumph) I will 
not close my eyes! I will look at you. You dare 
not do it, looking at my eyes! 

(Hassan whirls the sword round.) 
You dare not do it, looking at my eyes! 

(Hassan flings the sword across the room 
and fails across the divan, his face in his 
hands. ) 

Hassan 
0, Hassan the Confectioner, thou art nothing but an 
old man and a fool! 

(Yasmin comes up to Hassan. The Boys 
silently disappear. He draws her toward 
him.) 
(With infinite tenderness) Yasmin! 

Scene HI 

The Great Hall of the Palace. The room is plain, 
white marble. IsHAK alone, in his robes of Court 
Chamberlain. 

{Enter Soldiers with the Captain of the Military 
and Chief of Police.) 

{The Soldiers intone "The War Song of the 
Saracens.") 

Soldiers sing 
We are they who come faster than fate: we are 
they who ride early or late: 



98 HASSAN ACT III 

Vie storm at your ivory gate: Pale Kings of the 

sunset beware! 
Not on silk nor in samet we lie, not in curtained 

solemnity die 
Among women who chatter and cry and children 

who mumble a prayer. 
But we sleep by the ropes of the camp, and we rise 

with a shout and we tramp 
With the sun or the moon for a lamp, and the 

spray of the wind in our hair. 

From the huuls where the elephants are to the forts 

of Merou and Balghar, 
Our steel we have brought and our star to shine 

on the ruins of Rum. 
We have marched from the Indus to Spain, and 

by God we will go there again; 
We have stood on the shore of the plain where the 

Waters of Destiny boom. 
A mart of destruction we made at Yalula where 

men were afraid, 
For deatli was a difficult trade, and the sword was 

a broker of doom; 
And the Spear was a Desert Physician, who cured 

not a few of ambition. 
And drave not a few to perdition witli medicine 

bitter and strong. 

And the shield was a grief to the fool and as 

bright as a desolate pool. 
And as straight as tlie rock of Stamboul when their 

cavalry thundered along: 



ACT III HASSAN 99 

For the coward was drowned with the brave when 
our battle sheered up like a wave, 

And the dead to the desert we gave, and the glory 
to God in our song. 

The Soldiers 
(Cheering) Allah Akbar! (etc.) 

Chief of Police 
That is a splendid song your soldiers sing, breaker 
of infidel bones. Permit an unglorious policeman to 
inquire what flaming victory you celebrate to-day. 
Such is my loathly ignorance, I knew not the Caliph's 
army (may it ever plosh in seas of hostile blood!) 
had even left Bagdad. 

Captain of Military 
It is true we have not left Bagdad, but perchance 
we have saved it from destruction. For when the 
Caliph's Police have allowed a conspiracy to ripen un- 
detected, it is our duty to mow down the conspirators. 
It is true we did but vanquish beggars — but they were 
beggars to fight. Half of them we slew and one-half 
we captured, and, since the police believe no clue but 
the ocular, here they are. A victory is well worth a 
song. 

Chief of Police 
Allah, such a song! I thought: "At least they have 
captured Cairo." 

Captain of Military 
To save Bagdad is better than to capture Cairo. 



100 HASSAN ACT III 

Chief of Police 
{Pointing to the captive Beggars) Behold only the 
chain-mail of the vanquished! 

Captain of Military 
It is an old song, a glorious great battle song, and 
in mocking it thou hast displayed an utter absence 
of education, thou dragger of dead dogs from obscure 
gutters 

ISHAK 
Is this talk for the high divan, Captain? Ye have 
saved Bagdad? Bagdad is no longer worlfh saving. 
You rose-petal-bellied parasites of the palace, how dare 
you sing that song? 

Captain of Military 

Allah, these Poets talk in rhyme! 
{Enter the Herald announcing various personages, 
who enter as he announces them and are 
motioned to their place by Ishak.) 

Herald 

Abu Said, Prince of Basra, to do homage. Fahraddin, 
Prince of Damascus, to do homage. Al Mustansir, 
Prince of Koniah, to do homage. Tahir Dhu'l Yam- 
inayn. Governor of Khorasan, to do homage. 

The great caligraphist, 'Afiq of Diarbekir, master of 
the riqa and the shikasta hands: also of the Peacock 
style, and of painting in miniature. 

Ishak 
(Aside) Episodes of considerable obscenity. 



ACT III HASSAN 101 

Herald 
The celebrated Turkoman wrestler, Yurghiz Khan, 
whose thighs are three cubits in circumference. 

ISHAK 

(Aside) As fat as a woman's, but not as nice. 

Herald 

Abu Nouwas, the Caliph's Jester. The Rajah of the 
I'Pper Ganges, come hither to do homage with a pres- 
ent of eight hundred bales of indigo. 

ISHAK 

(Aside) And never dyed his beard. 

Herald 
Hang Wung, the wisest philosopher in China, come 
hither to study the excellence of the habits of true 
believers. He is a hundred and ten years old. . . . 

ISHAK 
(Aside) And perfectly blind. 

Herald 
Anastasius Johannes Georgius, ambassador of the 
infidel Empress Irene, mistress till God wills of Con- 
stantiniyeh and the lands of Rum, come here on a vain 
errand. . . . 

ISHAK 

He understands no word, and believes we do honour 
to his name. But the jest is thin, my Herald. 



102 HASSAN ACT III 

Herald 
Abul Asal, the wandering dervish, come hither to 
remind kings that they are but dust. 

ISHAK 
"Where lies Nushiravan the Just?" 

Dervish 
The rhyme helps reason. In the dust. 

ISHAK 

The platitudes of dervishes do not much disturb the 
beatitudes of kings. 

Herald 
Masrur, the Executioner, come hither to make 
several beggars the dusty equivalents of monarchs. 

ISHAK 

Ah, you may well shiver, poor captives: it is 
draughty among your rags. 

Herald 
Hassan ben Hassan al Bagdadi, the Caliph's friend. 

Soldiers 
Long live Hassan and the shadow of Hassan and 
the friend of Hassan ben Hassan al Bagdadi! 

ISHAK 

{Draiving Hassan aside) Come hither, friend of 
the Caliph; do not forget that you are the man witli 
the broken lute. 



ACT III HASSAN 103 

Hassan 

What is a friend? 

ISHAK 
Are you not in favour? Has not the Caliph taught 
you? You have a royal friend. 

Hassan 
He is generous: he is gracious: he is intimate. He 
has leant on my arm, he has embraced me, and he 
has called me by that name "friend." But I tremble 
before his eyes. 

ISHAK 

You have found out. No man can ever be his friend. 

Hassan 

Alas, that is because he is exalted far above man- 
kind! 

ISHAK 

Alas, no: but because he uses that supremacy to play 
the artist with the lives of men. 

Hassan 

What do you mean, Ishak? 

ISHAK 

Have you not seen the designer of carpets, Hassan 

of Bagdad, put here the blue and here the gold, here 

the orange and here the green? So have I seen the 

Caliph take the life of some helpless man — who was 



104 HASSAN ACT III 

contented in his little house and garden, enjoying the 
blue of happy days — and colour his life with the purple 
of power, and streak it with the crimson of lust: then 
whelm it all in the gloom-greys of abasement, touched 
with the glaring reds of pain, and edge the whole with 
the black border of annihilation. 

Hassan 
He has been so generous. Do not say he is a tyrant! 
Do not say he delights in the agony of men! 

ISHAK 

Agony is a fine colour, and he delights therein as 
a painter in vermilion new brought from Kurdistan. 
But shall so great an artist not love contrast? To 
clasp a silver belt round the loins of a filthy beggar 
while a slave darkens the soles of his late vizier, is 
for him but a jest touched with a sense of the ap- 
propriate: and I have seen it enacted in this very 
room. 

Hassan 

But you are his friend. 

ISHAK 

As you are. It is elegant for a monarch to con- 
descend: it is refreshing for a monarch to talk as man 
to man. It is artistic for a monarch to enjoy the 
pleasures of contrast and escape tbe formalities of 
Court. . . . But here comes the preceder of the Caliph, 
the penultimate splendour of the divan, a man noble 
without passion, sagacious without inspiration, and weak 
as a miser's coffee. 



ACT III HASSAN 105 

Herald 
The Tulip of the Parterre of Government, the 
Shadow of the Cypress Tree, the Sun's Moon, Jafar 
the Barmecide. 

Soldiers 
Long live the great Vizier! 

Herald 
Let all mouths close but mine. {Lifting his staff) 
The Holy, the Just, the High-born, the Omnipotent; 
the Gardener of the Vale of Islam, the Lion of the 
Imperial Forests, the Rider on the Spotless Horse, 
the Cypress on the Golden Hill, the Master of Spears, 
the Redresser of Wrong, the Drinker of Blood, the 
Peacock of the World, the Shadow of God on Earth, 
the Conmiander of the Faithful, Haroun al Raschid 
ben Mohammed, Ibn Abdullah Ibn Mohammed Ibn Ali 
ben Abdullah, Ibn 'Abbas, the Caliph! 

Soldiers 
The Holy, the High-born, the Just One, the Caliph! 
The Cypress, the Peacock, the Lion, the Caliph! 
From Rum to Bokhara one monarch, the Caliph! 

Dervish 
(Gloomily) A clay thing, a plaything, a shadow, 
the Caliph! 

Caliph 
The Divan is open. Let all mouths close but mine. 
Our justice to-day will be swift as a blow of the 



106 HASSAN ACT III 

sword. In the Book of the Wisdom of Rulers I read: 
"Be sudden to uproot the tree of conspiracy for it 
scatters far its seed." Are you the Beggars? 

Beggars 
We are beggars of Bagdad. 

Caliph 
Tliou, spokesman, come hither! Wherefore didst 
thou plot against my throne and the safety of all Islam? 
Didst thou not fear not only for thy life but for thy 
salvation? 

Beggar 

Master and Lord of the World, hast thou been poor, 
hast thou been hungry? Dost thou know what dreams 
enter the gaunt heads of starving men as they lie 
against the back of thy garden wall, and moan: "Bread 
in God's name, bread in the name of God"? 

Caliph 
Dost thou deny conspiracy? 

Beggar 
I conspired. 

Caliph 

Is there one of you denieth conspiracy? 

(Silence.) 
Masrur, lead out the conspirators to death. 

(Masrur executes the order.) 



ACT III HASSAN 107 

Caliph 
Let those whose duty it is fetch him who is called 
the King of the Beggars from his cell, and let him 
who did us the great service of capturing alive that 
dangerous man, step forth into the midst. 

Chief of Police 
{Stepping forward) Lord of the World — but I am 
dirt. 

Captain of Military 
(Simultaneously advancing) Lord of the World — 
but I am dung. 

Caliph 
Were you both concerned in his capture? My 
favour is doubled upon you. Let two robes of honour 
be brought before my throne. 

Chief of Police 
Sir, I fail to comprehend the presence of this military 
man. He was but a spectator when I dragged out the 
King of the Beggars from the gutter of his roof. 

Captain of Military 
O thou civilian, I caught a valiant hold of his legs, 
despite his heavy and continuous kicks, whilst thou didst 
but timidly pluck at his sleeve. 

Chief of Police 
Pluck at his sleeve, thou tin-coated murderer! 
Summon the twenty drops of blood that trickle round 



108 HASSAN ACT III 

thy lank and withered frame and let them mount to 
thy mendacious cheek! 

Captain of Military 
Thou dropsical elephant! 

Caliph 
Enough! I love to hear the speech of heroes, but 
enough. It is clear the glory is divided. Give me 
one of those robes of honour, and summon the tailor 
of the court. 

Court Tailor 
{Very prostrate) Master of the World, Master! 

Caliph 
Slit me this robe in twain. 

Court Tailor 
{Moaning as he does so) Allah is great, Allah is 
great. Such a well-cut robe: such excellent silk! 

Caliph 
Come hither both. 

Captain of Military 
{Hanging back) The glory is all to the Police. 

Chief of Police 
The credit is entirely due to my honourable friend. 

Caliph 

{Insisting) Come hither both. 



ACT III HASSAN 109 

{They are fitted with half a robe of honour 
each amid laughter.) 

Soldiers 
Long live those whom the Caliph delights to honour! 

Captain of Military 
{Under his teeth) Mutinous swine! 

Caliph 

And now bring forward the King of the Beggars. 
{The King of the Beggars is brought in 
chained hand and foot, but still dressed in 
gold.) 
The Salaam to my host of yesternight. 

Rafi, King of Beggars 

The Salaam, man of Basra. I see thy fellow- 
merchant in the robes of the Grand Vizier. But the 
negro, that most disgusting negro, seems to be absent. 
To Hassan, my congratulations on his advancement. 

Caliph 
Thou dost speak with the impudence of a king, 
but thy subjects are taken from thee. They will soon 
be black crows in the pine-wood by the walls. 

Rafi 
Had I but known thee last night, thou man of Basra 
whom men call Caliph of the Faithful — thou mas- 
sacrer of good men — had I but known thee, had I 
but known thee! 



110 HASSAN ACT III 

Chief of Police 
Shall I tear out his tongue? 

Caliph 
Let him talk. I have found a man who does not 
flatter me. Let me study the hatred in his eyes. 

Rafi 

It is not enough for thee to misrule a quarter of the 
world. Thou art not only a foul tyrant, but a mean 
tradesman, thou dog-hearted spy! 

Jafar 
It is not decent to let this man continue his coarse 
abuse, Master. Wilt thou not end him? 

Caliph 
He shall end in his time. {To King of the 
Beggars) Thy impudence will not redound to thy 
advantage, Rafi! Wherefore dost thou not bite the 
tongue of insolence with the tooth of discretion? 

Rafi 

I am a man in the presence of death. 

Caliph 
There are a thousand paths to the delectable tavern 
of death, and some run straight and some run crooked. 

Rafi 

Cut, scourge, burn, rack thy utmost. The nobler 
the aim the baser the failure. Do not I deserve to 



ACT III HASSAN 111 

feel every separate pain of those whom my folly has 
sent to a cruel death? 

Chinese Philosopher 
I am a hundred and ten years old, and I have never 
heard a remark in more exquisite taste. 

Caliph 
It is well. But before I send thee to a death so 
cruel that thy conscience shall be fully satisfied in this 
world and the next, answer me this: Hast thou for- 
gotten that unparalleled lady whom the zeal of my serv- 
ants ravished from thy embrace? 

Rafi 
Thou devil of Eblis! Have I forgotten? Have I 
not prayed thou shouldst forget? 

Caliph 

Shall a gallant man forget the name of a beautiful 
woman? We will look on her, for whom thou didst 
attempt to raze the central fort of Islam. {To Atten- 
dants) Bring in this lady, Pervaneh. 

Rafi 
(In supplication) Master of the World! 
Master of the World! 

Caliph 

Thou changcst tone abruptly but late. 

Rafi 
I was insolent only that her name should be forgotten 
in thy anger and my death, Splendour of Islam! 



112 HASSAN ACT III 

Caliph 
A crafty excuse for impoliteness. Wilt thou now 
begin to be polite to the tyrant whose coffin was to be 
nailed over his open eyes? He who hopes for his au- 
dience to forget the subject of his discourse should mod- 
erate his style. 

Rafi 

God blind me that I may not see her! 

Caliph 
Why? Dost thou not love her still? Is not the sight 
of his beloved to the victim of separation like the vision 
of a fountain to him who dies of thirst? 

Hassan 
(Aside) But if that fountain be a fountain whose 
drops are blood? 

Rafi 

Thou, thou hast held her in thy arms! Oh God, have 
pity on my soul! 

Caliph 

But with this knowledge thou didst still desire her, 
and wast ready to wreck Bagdad for the sparkle of her 
eyes. 

Rafi 

But first the blood of her possessor should have 
washed her honour clean. 



ACT III HASSAN 113 

Caliph 
Thou art a most ridiculous man. Thou hast built thy 
monstrous tower of crime on a foundation of painted 
smoke. Dost thou imagine I have tasted all the fruit 
of my garden? 

Rafi 

Allah has given thee men's bodies, but it is for him 
alone to torment the soul. By thy faith, Caliph, 
speak the truth! 

Caliph 
Do I know every slave whom my industrious officials 
sweep in from the streets? To my knowledge I have 
never set my eyes on this woman of thine. 

Herald 
The maiden Pervaneh! 

Caliph 
Let her come before me. 

(Pervaneh is ushered into the Presence.) 

Pervaneh 
{With due reverence) Master of the World! 

Caliph 
It is written in the Sacred Law: In the King's presence 
a woman may unveil, without fear of censure. 

Pervaneh 
Ah, Master, but only the eagle dare look upon the 
sun. 



114 HASSAN ACT III 

Caliph 
Thy speech is proud enough for all the eagles, Lady 
Pervaneh, and I doubt not thy eyes, which I desire to 
see, are steady in the blaze of danger. Must I command 
thee to unveil? 

Pervaneh 
Alas, Master of the World, my eyes are dim with long 
confinement in a jewelled cage, and the wings of my 
soul are numb. Only on the hills of my country where 
the rolling sun of Heaven has his morning home, only 
on their windy hills do the women of my country go 
unveiled. 

ISHAK 
(To himself, half singing) The hills, the hills, the 
morning on the hills! 

Caliph 
{To Pervaneh) I command thee to unveil. 

Pervaneh 
If thou wilt tear my veil from off my face, I will tear 
my face before thy eyes. 

Rafi 

Ah, no! . . . 

Pervaneh 
Who art thou who dost cry, "Ah, no!"? Who art 
thou who dost hide thy face in fettered hands . . . 



ACT III HASSAN 115 

Rafi 
A prisoner. 

Pervaneh 
dissembling thy voice . . . 

Rafi 
A prisoner awaiting death. 

Pervaneh 
trembling when I touch thee? 

Rafi 
A man afraid. 

Pervaneh 
{In a voice of exaltation) For thee, Sultan, I raise 
my veil; and wait, thy captive, to share thy destiny. 

Hassan 
Oh, Ishak! The fire of the heart of beauty! 

Rafi 
Leave me, Pervaneh! Walk not upon my path! 
You do not know what a foul doom is mine. 

Pervaneh 
Foul dooms? Foul dooms? Rafi, I can forget ten 
centuries of doom now that I see your eyes again! 

Rafi 

I conspired against his throne to win you freedom. 



116 HASSAN ACT III 

Through my fault I failed, through niv fault niv thou- 
sand followers are dancing in the wind. 

Pervaneh 

For me you conspired? For me — for me? 

Rafi 
I would have drowTied Bagdad in blood to kiss your 
lips again. 

Pervaneh 
lover! 

Rafi 

{Showing his fettered hands) Lover indeed! 

Pervaneh 
There are a thousand eyes round us, my beloved, 
but what care I? The voice of the world cries out, 
"Thou art a slave hi the Palace, and thy lover a prisoner 
in chains." (Embracing him) But we have heard the 
Trumpets of Reality that drown the vain din of tlie 
Thing that Seems. We have walked with the Friend of 
Friends in the Garden of the Stars, and He is pitiable to 
poor lovers who are pierced by tlie arrows of this ghostly 
world. Your lips are the only lips, my lover, your 
eves the only eyes — and all the other eyes but phantom 
lights that glitter in the mist of dream. 

Courtier 
This is sheer heresv. 



ACT tn HASSAN 117 

ISHAK 

Then a plague on your religion. 

Jafar 
This is Sufic doctrine, and most dangerous to the 
State. 

Hassan 
Then a plague on the state! 

Caliph 
Ye who make love in full Divan, can ye yet listen 
to the voice of the world? 

Pervaneh 

{Dazed) They are speaking. 

Caliph 

0, Rafi, King of the Beggars, since after all thou art 
much entangled in the web of unreality, it is necessary 
that I ask thee some phantom questions concerning thy 
apparent acts. 

Firstly, dost thou deny thou didst call thyself Caliph 
of the Unbelievers, and blaspheme thy faith in my pres- 
ence and in the presence of Jafar, my Vizier, Masrur, 
tlie Executioner, and Hassan, my friend? 

Rafi 
I have nothing to deny. 

Caliph 
Dost thou, secondly, deny that thou didst swear in the 



118 HASSAN ACT III 

presence of the same to nail the Caliph of the Faithful 
alive in his coffin, or that thou didst conspire with the 
beggars to slay me, to seize Bagdad and to usurp the 
throne? 

Rafi 
I have nothing to deny. 

Caliph 
Dost thou, thirdly, deny that thou didst scheme this 
monstrous crime for the sake of a woman? 

Rafi 
I have nothing to deny. 

Caliph 
Rafi, thou art confessed a Blasphemer, a Traitor . . . 
and a Lunatic. It remains to consider thy punishment. 



Rafi 



As thou wilt. 



Caliph 
Thou art brave, but I fear the shafts of unreality 
will prick thee extremely hard. For thou hast merited 
not one but a dozen deaths. Now, if I impale thee for 
conspiracy, how shall I burn thee for blasphemy? But 
with such other pains as man can suffer, judicious 
arrangement carries the day over unthinking brutality. 
For if I skin thee for thy impudence, how can I flog 
thee for thy folly? But if the order is reversed thou 
canst enjoy the benefit of both expiations. 



ACT III HASSAN 119 

Rafi 

Thou hast certainly studied the art of pain. 

Caliph 
Yet what are the worst tortures thou shalt undergo to 
the horror of the death thou didst contrive for me? 

Rafi 

{With impatience) What is my condemnation? 

Caliph 
for Lunacy to be nailed, for Conspiracy to be 
stretched, for Blasphemy to be split. 

Pervaneh 

Ah! 

{Murmurs of horror and satisfaction fill the 
Court at the announcement of this savage 
punishment. ) 

Rafi 

As Allah wills. 

Pervaneh 
{Falling at the Caliph's feet) Spare, spare, Master 
of the World! 

Caliph 
Dost thou think I will absolve him for thy "spare"? 

Pervaneh 
Mercy! 0, Mercy! 



i:0 HASSAN ACT III 

\\ liy dost thou cry "Mercy" ami clasp my feet? Is 
not pain a fancy and this world a cloud? 

PKRVA^EH 

^/vjViVii: to her feeh This world is Hell, but tliose 
that dig Vlell dtvper sliall find the Hell-l^eneath-tht^Hells 
which thev seau'h for. 

Cauph 

Ihou hast metaphysic, but hast tliou logic? Invent 
me a re^ison — one small and subtle reason — why I should 
show mercv to this man. 

Pervaneh 

Ah — wilt thou have reasons? 

Cauph 
\\ as not mv sentence jusC? 

Pkryaneh 
W ilt thou have justice? 

C-\UPH 

If 1 had stood bound Ivfore him, would he have lis- 
tened to my prayer? 

Per VAN EH 
Wilt thou have revenge? 

C^UPH 

Shall 1 scorn reason, pervert justice, and put aside 
revenge — for thv dark eves? 



ACT III HASSAN 121 

Pekvaneh 
Turn thv justice, turn thy revenge on me in the name 
of the dark, eyes of Goil! They say a woman suffers 
longer and sharper than a man. 

Cauph 
Lady, dost thou mean tliis with all its meaning, or say 
it to implore pity? Beware of thy answer! The rack 
and whip are ready and near to hand. 

Per VAN EH 

(Her onus oulslretchcd) Then give the word. 
Kuoik oil those fetters before my eyes — and nail me to 
the wall. 

Rafi 

Pervaneh ! 

Cauph 
Ecstasy! Ecstasy! Thou art an ecstatic and wilt 
not suffer. I know the thick skins of martyrs. I refuse. 

Perv.aneh 
(To R.\Fi) Alas, what can I do! 

Rafi 

Let me die! I have seen you agiiin. It is nothing for 
a man to die. 

Pervaneh 
Nothing for a miui to die? 'Tis Heaven wide open for 
a man to die. But tliey will tear you, Rafi, Rafi! 



122 HASSAN ACT III 

Rafi 
Shall I fear the pain you called upon yourself, or 
shrink where you were brave? 

Pervaneh 

[To the Caliph) I ask so small a boon. Grant 
my lover a clean death! 

Caliph 
Thou dost ask a very great boon indeed. For as thou 
sayest, what is death? Shall the man who shakes my 
kingdom slip into eternity like a thief men catch in the 
bazaar? Shall he who does the greater wrong not sufifer 
the greater pain? 

Pervaneh 
He is not afraid of pain. 

Caliph 
That is not to say he feels not pain. 

Pervaneh 
Just and reasonable, yet there is a holier thing than 
reason and justice. 

Dervish 
{His orthodoxy disturbed) A holier thing than jus- 
tice? 

Pervaneh 
Yes, Dervish. There is that which should not be 
defiled. 



ACT III HASSAN 123 

Caliph 
Whither now does thy plea wander? 

Pervaneh 

Father of Islam, can thine eyes that love flowers be- 
hold man's body hewn into foul shapes and monstrous as 
the phantoms that go wailing round the graves? Can 
thy ears that love the music of Ishak, listen to the gasps 
of the tormented droning through their bodies like a win- 
ter wind among the pines? 

Caliph 

1 shall not honour Rafi with my attendance: I shall be 
far from sight and sound. 

Pervaneh 
The thought of it — the thought of it! 

Caliph 
I have been ordering executioners all my life. There 
is only one thought that can haunt me — the thought of a 
cofiSn closing on open eyes, the sway of the coffin carried 
to the grave, the crash at the bottom of the pit, the 
rumble of the earth on the lid, the gasping for breath 
and light. 

Pervaneh 
He was distraught by passion, he spoke in fury: but 
thou dost judge him with a quiet mind. He is a man 
among men, but thou art the representative of God on 
earth, the sole Priest of Islam. Thou shalt not order 
God's image to be defiled. 



124 HASSAN ACT III 

Caliph 
So you would have me spare him for the sake of the 
perfection of man's body? Pervaneh, I am far more 
likely to spare him for the perfection of woman's. 

Pervaneh 
{Shrinking from the implied menace) For those 
that have wits, Master, perfection is sundered from 
desire. 

Caliph 
You are a woman — perfect — but a woman. 

Pervaneh 
By the curse of God. 

Caliph 
And however much you sunder perfection from desire, 
from desire your perfection is not sundered. 

Pervaneh 
I am the slave of thy household to come or go, to fetch 
or carry, to be struck or slain: but my perfection is not 
the slave of thy desire. 

Caliph 
(Softly) Yet, if you return to my household . . . 

Pervaneh 
(In fury) To die. 



ACT III HASSAN 125 

Caliph 
You would not be forgotten or neglected . . . and 
your presence would be a consolation and a charm. . . . 

Pervaneh 
Not to you, frigid tyrant, not to you! 

Caliph 
(Softly) Nor yet to the man who let your lover go 
in peace? 

Pervaneh 
Is there no shame in the world of Islam? Will you 
unclothe your lust in full Divan! 

Caliph 
You have already given the example. Come, shall I 
set your lover free? 

Pervaneh 
I would choke if you touched me, I would choke. Oh, 
the shame on me, the shame! You are smiling. It is 
not me you want but my shame! Is there a God in 
Heaven that lets you sit and smile? But you can set him 
free. Ah, will you set him free? I am your slave — I 
am your slave. You can rob me of rope and knife — the 
very means of death. If you will set him free! I am 
your slave, what choice have I? 

Caliph 
Thou hast not the manners or the heart of a slave. 
Thou wast brought to my household by violence, a free 



126 HASSAN ACT III 

woman born, and art no slave of mine. In the presence 
of my Divan I pronounce thee free. Thou art free to 
come and free to go, free to buy and free to sell, free to 
walk out and free to stay, free to wed and free to die — 
and free to make a choice. . . . 

Pervaneh 
To make a choice? Vi hat choice? Between his 
death and my disJionour? 

Caliph 
No, between love and life. 

Pervaneh 
Explain, Master of the \^'orld! 

Caliph 
Between two deaths with torment and two lives with 
separation. Between a day of love and all tlie years of 
life. 

Pervaneh 
Enlighten my understanding. 

Caliph 
I have considered this matter, I have decided this 
matter. I will speak plain and clear. [Rising) This 
is my irrevocable judgment from which tliere is no 
appeal. I give a choice to Pervaneh and Rafi, the King 
of the Beggars, and I grant them till sunset to consult 
their hearts and make that choice together. They shall 
both live on these conditions: that the lady Pervaneh 



ACT III HASSAN 127 

return forthwith to my harem to be my wife in lawful 
wedlock, and be treated with all the honour her boldness 
and her beauty merit. That the King of the Beggars 
leave Bagdad, and that these two lovers part for ever 
till they die. 

But if they refuse this separation, I offer them one 
day of love, from sunset to-niglit to sunset on the 
morrow, unfettered and alone, with no more guard than 
may keep them from self-destruction. But when that 
day is over they shall die together in merciless torment. 
In the name of Allah the most merciful, the Divan is 
closed. 



CURTAIN 



ACT IV 
Scene I 

In the vattJts of the palace, otiiside the cell of the KiXG 

OF THE Begcaks. Drop scene. 
[^Enter Hassan.^ 

R^i^^AN 

Which uay? \^ hich way? I am lost in tliis dark 
passage. My voice rings round the arches, \^liat's 
that noise? Is there an array coraing? Or are all the 
prisoners stamping with wTath? . . . No. ... It is 
only some one walking. ... I wonder who! And if 
this stranger asks me my business what shall I say to 
him? Do I know what brought me to this dismal 
region ? 

ISHAK 

{From the darkness) Who goes there? What dost 
thou here? \^liat is thv business? 

I1\S<?A\ 

Wlio calls? I am Hassan, inspecting the security of 
the imperial prisons. Who art thou? 

ISHAK 

\^ ho am I? Ten books were written bv Aflatun and 
twenty by Aristu to answer that mighty question. 
Has«san of my heart! 

12S 



ACT IV IL\SSAN 120 

Hassan 

Isluik! Come out of hiding, Uhak. \S hat are you 
doing here? 

ISHAK 

I gatlier mushrooms, inspector of the vauhs of 
vice! 

Hassan 
Have you come too? I do not know why I came. 
I hoped ... I do not know why I came, but I think 
our hearts do beat together like the hearts of friends. 
Did you come here because of th^m? 

Ishak 
I came here to hear a play more tragic than the 
mjisteries of Hossein. to listen to a debate more weighty 
than the council talk of kings'. . . . 

Hassan 
You do not mean? . . . 

Ishak 
I mean the debate of love and life. 

Hassan 
Could you spy on that? How cruel! 

Ishak 

The poet must learn what man's agony can teach 
him. 



130 HASSAN ACT IV 

Hassan 
Is it then not better not to be a poet? 

ISHAK 

{Bitterly) Allah did not ask me that question when 
he made me a poet and a dissector of souls. It is 
my trade: I do but follow my master, the exalted 
Designer of human carpets, the Ruler of the world. 
If he prepared the situation, shall I not observe the 
characters? Thus I corrupt my soul to create — Allah 
knoweth what — ten little words like rubies glimmering 
in a row. As for you, I think you begin to understand 
the Caliph of the Faithful. 

Hassan 
Why speak of him? All men are brutes, you and 
he and I. I thought that I was kinder than other men 
— but I was only more afraid. This day is the first 
day of my exaltation, I have begun it the all but 
murderer of a woman, and I end it a spy on souls 
in trouble. 

ISHAK 

Do not worry any longer, dear Hassan, on the moral 
problem. The moth of curiosity will always flutter 
round the lamp of circumstance. Here comes the 
guard, they shall direct us. 

{Enter 2 Guards) 

ISHAK 

{To the Guard) Ho, soldier, whither? 



ACT IV HASSAN 131 

1st Guard 
(Saluting) To the cell of the King of the Beggars, 
my masters, to relieve the Guard. 

IsHAK 

What, will you stand inside the cell? 

1st Guard 
Inside, my masters. 

Ishak 
A shame, I say, a shame to spy on a pair of lovers. 
Will they fly off through the grating or creep through 
the keyhole? 

1st Guard 
We know the ways of prisoners, my masters. 
Masrur is disappointed when we bring him corpses to 
be whipped. [To 2nd Guard) Is he not disappointed, 
Mohamed? 

2nd Guard 
(In deep, lugubrious and respectful tones) Oh, sir, 
he is bitterly disappointed. 

ISHAK 

Well, it is your fault, my fine fellows, if you leave 
daggers and ropes lying about in your prisoners' cells. 

1st Guard 
Ah, you do not know the artfulness of prisoners, 
my masters. They will bang their heads against the 



132 HASSAN ACT IV 

wall, or they will eat their straw. {To 2nd Guard) 
Do they not eat their straw, Mohamed? 

2nd Guard 
{To Ishak) Oh, sir, they frequently eat their straw. 

ISHAK 

Chain them, chain them. 

1st Guard 
We do, my masters, but even then they strangle them- 
selves in their fetters. 

Ishak 
Strangle themselves in their fetters? 

1st Guard 

Do they not strangle themselves in their fetters, 
Mohamed ? 

2nd Guard 
{To Ishak) I have known them, sir, to strangle 
themselves in their fetters. 

Ishak 
But, as you know, these two have a choice between 
a life with separation and a death with torment. Now 
surely they will choose life, and will hardly need a 
sentry to spear them away from the doorstep of 
eternity. 

1st Guard 
I should think so indeed, sir. But you never can 



ACT IV HASSAN 133 

tell with prisoners. Prisoners are very obstinate, espe- 
cially women, are they not, Mohamed? 

C.ND Guard 
(To Ishak) Female prisoners are very obstinate 
indeed, sir. 

Ishak 
{With assumed heartiness) Well, none of us would 
require till sunset to make our choice, would we? 

1st Guard 
No, sir, not those of us who have ever seen Masrur 
at work. 

Ishak 
But if they do choose their day of love, will they 
not be free according to the Caliph's promise? Will 
you still guard them in their cell, sons of impropriety, 
lest they eat their straw? 

1st Guard 
{With a leer) Nay, we shall stand outside the door, 
and listen at the grill. 

Ishak 
And that is precisely Jvhat we intend to do now if 
you will show us the door. 

1st Guard 
I don't know whether I could quite do that, sir. 



134 HASSAN ACT IV 

ISHAK 

{Giving him money) You are valiant fellows and, 
I am convinced, considerably underpaid. 

1st Guard 
Ours is a most disagreeable profession, your Excel- 
lency. 

2nd Guard 
{Accepting money) And the emoluments are infini- 
tesimal. 

1st Guard 

This way, gentlemen. 

{Shows them to the door.) 

Scene II 

A cell. A grating through ivhich streams the sunlight. 
A heavy door with a narrow spyhole. Rafi if 
fettered to the wall, but Pervaneh has not been 
bound. Two Guards stand immobile on either side 
of the door. 

Rafi 

They have changed our guard for the last time; it 
will be sunset in an hour. 

Pervaneh 
Still a long hour before your hands are freed ta 
make me a belt of love. Oh, idle sun, I am weary oi 
thy pattern on the wall. Still a long hour! 



ACT IV HASSAN 135 

Rafi 

And still a night and a day before our doom. 

FERVANkH 
Why IS your voice so sorrowful? Your words do 
noi keep step with your decision nor march like stand- 
ard-bearers of your great resolve. 

Rafi 

What have I decided? What have I resolved? You 
came near. I saw the wings of your spirit beating the 
air around you. You locked the silver fetters around 
my neck and I forgot these manacles of iron: you 
perfumed me with your hair till this cell became a 
meadow: you turned toward me eyes in whose night 
the seven deep oceans flashed their drowned stars, and 
all your body asked without speech, "Wilt thou die for 
love?" 

Pervaneh 
Do you repent? Do you unsay the golden words? 

Rafi 

Put but your lips on mine and seal my words against 
unsaying! 

Pervaneh 
I did wrong to make you passionate. I see that in 
your heart you do repent. I would not have you bound 
by a moment's madness but with all your reason and 
v/ith all your soul. 



136 HASSAN ACT IV 

Rah 

Ah, stand apart and veil your face, you who call in 
the name of reason! You are all afire for martyrdom: 
can you hear reason calling from her snows? Oh, you 
woman, Allah curse you for blinding ray eyes with love! 



Pervankh 



Ah, Rafi! 



Rah 

Be silent — be silent! Your voice is the voice of a 
garden at daybreak, when all the birds are singing at 
the sun. Forget your whirling dreams, your fires, your 
lightnings, your splendours of the soul, and answer 
the passionless voice that asks you — why should your 
lover die, and such a death? 



Pervaneh 



I am listening. 



Rafi 

I am very young. Shall I forget to laugh if I con- 
tinue to live? Shall I spend all my hours regretting 
you? Shall I not return to my country and comfort 
the hearts of those that gave me birth? Have I not 
my white- walled house, my books, my old friends, my 
garden of flowers and trees? Has the stream forgotten 
to sing at the end of my garden because Pervaneh 
comes no more? 

*"Love fades," saith Reason, with a gentler voice. 
"Love fades, but doth not fall. Love fadeth not to 
yellow like the rose but to gold like the leaves upon 



ACT IV HASSAN 137 

the poplar by the stream." And when my poplars are 
all gold, I shall sit beneath their shade beside the stream 
to read my book. When I am tired of my book I will 
lie on my back and watch the clouds. There in the 
clouds I shall see your face, and remember you with a 
wistful remembrance as if you had always been a dream 
and the silver torment of your arms had never been 
more than the white mists circling the round mountain 
snows. 

Pervaneh 
(With growing anger) And so, wrapped in pleasant 
fancies, you will forget the woman whose honour you 
have sold to a tyrant. And so, while I, far from my 
country and my home, am dying of shame and con- 
finement, you will dream and you will dream! 

Rafi 

The plague on your dishonour! You are to be the 
Caliph's wife. Is that not held in all Islam for the 
highest honour to which a woman can attain? Is that 
worse shame than being flayed by a foul negro? The 
shame! the selling! the dishonour! A woman's vanity: 
am I to be tortured to death to gratify your pride? If 
I must not have you, do I care whose wife you be? I 
shall remember you as you are now — rock water un- 
defiled. 

Pervaneh 
Cold and heartless coward: you are afraid of death! 

Rafi 
By Allah, I am afraid of death, and the man who 



138 HASSAN ACT IV 

fears not death is a dullard and a fool! Are we still 
making speeches in full Divan to the admiration of 
the by-standers? Must we pose even now! If you 
hate me for fearing death, go your way and leave this 
coward. Ah, no, no, do not leave me, Pervaneh! 
Forgive me that I am what I am. I have not unsaid 
my promise. I will die with you. I will die! I will 
die! I will endure the tortures that are thrice as terrible 
as death, the tortures that parch my mouth with fear. 

Pervaneh 
Shame on you, weak and shivering lover! What is 
pain for us! 

Rafi 

You do not see — you do not see! Look at your 
hands, they shall be torn — ah, I cannot speak of it. 
I shall see your blood flow like wine from a white 
fountain drop by drop till you have painted the carpet 
of execution all red lilies. 

Pervaneh 
Ah — but will not even your poor love flow deep 
when I set that crimson seal upon the story of our 
lives! 

Rafi 

Alas, you are still dreaming: you are still blind with 
exaltation: your speech is metaphor. You do not see, 
you have never heard the high, thin shriek of the tor- 
tured, you have not seen the shape of their bodies 
when they are cast into the ditch. Come near, Pervaneh. 



ACT IV HASSAN 139 

Do you know what they will do to you? Come near: 
I cannot say it aloud. (Pervaneh approaches) Ah, I 
dare not tell you. ... I dare not tell you! 

Pervaneh 
Tell me, clear and plain. 

Rafi 

{Whispers in Pervaneh's ear). . . 

Pervaneh 
{Covering her face with her hands) Ah, God — they 
will do that! No, no; they will not do that to me! 

Rafi 

Pitilessly. 

Pervaneh 
{Wildly) They will do that!— Ah, the shame of it! 
They will do that — Ah, the pain of it! I see! I feel! 
I hear ! O save me, Rafi ! 

Rafi 

Alas! Why did I tell you this? 

Pervaneh 
It is beyond endurance: it is foul: my veins will 
burst at the very thought. I am between a shame and 
a shame and there is no escape. . . . But, at least, 
they shall not do this to you, Rafi. Hush . . . talk 
low: the soldiers must not hear {glancing at the Guards 
and whispering low). Will you die here between my 
hands, instantly, and with no pain? 



140 HASSAN ACT IV 

Rafi 
[In a hushed voice) Quickly! How can you do it? 
We are guarded — have you a knife? 

Pervaneh 

My hands will be cunning round your neck, beloved. 
Did I not say you should die between my hands? 

Rafi 

Be quick: be quiet: I will cast back my head. 

A Guard 
{Thrusting Pervaneh back with his draivn sword as 
she lays her hands on her lover s neck) Back, in the 
Caliph's name! 

Rafi 

{To Pervaneh) Run in upon his sword. . . . 

Pervaneh 
{Shrinking away from the Guard's sword) I cannot! 

Rafi 

Quick — quick! Fall on the sword and save all shame. 

Pervaneh 
My breast, my breast: I am afraid . . . {Prostrate 
on the ground) I am utterly shamed — I have missed 
your death and mine. 

Rafi 
You have flinched. 



ACT IV HASSAN 141 

Pervaneh 
The point was on my breast, and it might have been 
all ended for you and me. 

Rafi 
You have been afraid. 

Pervaneh 
It would have driven to my heart. Ah, the woman 
that I am! 

Rafi 

It is so small a thing, a pricking of the steel. 

Pervaneh 
Ah! — it is a little thing, you say? It is like ice, 
so sharp and cold. I am a vile coward. 

Rafi 

We are both cowards, you and I. The sunlight 
changes on the wall from white to gold. It is evening. 
Our time has come. Shall we choose life? Shall we 
choose the sky and the sea, the mountains, the rivers and 
the plains? Shall we choose the flowers and the bees, and 
all the birds of heaven? Shall we choose laughter and 
tears, sorrow and desire, speech and silence, and the 
shout of the man behind the hill? 

Pervaneh 
Ah, empty, empty without your heart! (Weeps.) 

Rafi 
Empty as death, Pervaneh, empty as death? 



142 HASSAN ACT IV 

Pervaneh 
The wall reddens: the last minute has come: we 
must choose. 

Rafi 
Choose for me: I follow. Did I talk of life? My 
heart is breaking for desire of you. If you bid me 
depart, I will not live without you. Choose for me — ■ 
and choose well. Phantoms of pain! Phantoms of 
pain! Let me but have you in my arms, and one day 
of love shall widen into eternity. Who knows? The 
earth may crack tonight, or the sun stay down for ever 
in his grave. Who knows — to-morrow — God will begin 
and finish the judgment of the world — and when it is 
all over find you sleeping in my arms? 

Pervaneh 

(Rising slowly to her feet and laying her hands on 
the shoulders of her lover) Oh, let us die! Not for 
my dishonour, Rafi. What is my dishonour to me or 
you, beloved, or the shame of a girl's virginity to him 
who made the sea? This clay of mine is fair enough, 
I think, but God hath cast it in the common mould. 
O lover, lover, I would walk beneath the walls and sell 
my body to the gipsy and the Jew ere you should cry 
"I am hungry" or "I am cold." 

Rafi 

Die for love of me — for a day and a night of love! 

Pervaneh 
I die for love of you, Rafi! Behold, the Spirit grows 



ACT IV HASSAN 143 

bright around you: you are one with the Eternal Lover, 
the Friend of all the World. His spirit flashes in thine 
eyes and hovers round thy lips: thy body is all fire! 

Rafi 
Comfort me, comfort me! I do not understand thy 
dreams. 

Pervaneh 
[Her arms stiffening in ecstasy) The splendour 
pours from the window — the spirits in red and gold. 
Death with thee, death for thee, death to attain thee, 
lover — and then the garden — then the fountain — then 
the walking side by side. 

Rafi 

my sweet life, my sweet life — must this mad 
dreaming end thee? 

Pervaneh 
Sweet life — we die for thy sweetness, Lord of the 
Garden of Peace! Come, love, and die for the fire that 
beats within us, for the air that blows around us, for 
the mountains of our country and the wind among their 
pines you and I accept torture and confront our 
end. We are in the service of the World. The voice 
of the rolling deep is shouting: "Suffer that my waves 
may moan." The company of the stars sings out: "Be 
brave that we may shine." The spirits of children not 
yet born whisper as they crowd around us: "Endure 
that we may conquer." 



144 HASSAN ACT IV 

Rafi 
Pervaneh ! Pervaneh ! 

Pervaneh 

Hark! Hark! — down through the spheres — the 

Trumpeter of Immortality! "Die, lest I be shamed, 
lovers. Die, lest I be shamed!" 

Rafi 

Die then, Pervaneh, for thy great reasons. Me no 
ecstasy can help through the hours of pain. I die for 
love alone. 

Herald 
(Entering) The Caliph demands your choice. 

Rafi 

Death! 

Hassan 

(Bursting in) No, no. God! 

ISHAK 

They have chosen too well. 

(Exit Herald. Pervaneh is still in ecstasy 
when the Curtain falls.) 

END OF ACT IV. 



Act V 
Scene I 

Toivards the sunset of the next day. The Caliph's 
garden (Act III, Scene I) once more. 
{Enter the Caliph with Attendants as Hassan 
comes from his pavilion.) 

Caliph 
We were coming to your door to seek you, Hassan, 
but you have anticipated the knock of doubt by the 
shock of appearance. Why have you left your house 
before the nightingale? Will you too sing to the dawn- 
ing moon? If so — we have come to hear. 

Hassan 
Oh, Master of the World — the hour of the nightin- 
gale has not yet come. I have sought thee all day, 
Master, and could not find thee. Thou didst hold 
the Divan — thou was hunting — ^thou wast asleep — thou 
wast at dinner — and now the hour is near, Master of 
the World — but not yet come. 

Caliph 
What hour? 

Hassan 
The hour of the nightingale: the hour when sun and 
moon are weighed in the silver scales of heaven: and 
thy scale of justice moves downward with the sun. 

145 



146 HASSAN ACT V 

Caliph 
Surely thy head is full of fancies and thy mood 
perverse. I cannot grasp the shadow of thy meaning. 

Hassan 
(Throwing himself at the Caliph's feet) Master 
of the World, have mercy on Pervaneh and Rafi! 

Caliph 

What — those two? Let them have mercy on them- 
selves. They have chosen death as I am told. The 
woman has paid me the compliment of preferring torture 
with her Rafi to a marriage with myself. They have 
spent a pleasant day together: exquisite food was placed 
before them, and the surveillance was discreet. They 
will now pass a less pleasant evening. 

Hassan 
Let not the woman be tortured: have mercy on the 
woman! 

Caliph 
Rise, you fantastic suppliant. Do you dare ask mercy 
for these insolent and dangerous folk whose life was 
in their own hands — who have themselves pulled down 
the cord of the rat-trap of destruction? 

Hassan 
Had you but heard them — had you but watched as 
I did while they made that awful choice, you would 
have forgotten expediency, justice, revenge, and listened 
only to the appeal of the anguish of their souls! 



ACT V HASSAN 147 

Caliph 
I doubt it! 

Hassan 

They chose so well ! They are so young. So terribly 
in love. I have not slept, I have not eaten, Master! I 
take no pleasure in my house and garden. I see blood 
on my walls, blood on my carpet, blood in the fountain, 
blood in the sky! 

Caliph 
Well, well, I will leave you to these agreeable delu- 
sions. Abu Nawas has found me a young Kurdish girl 
who can dance with one leg round her neck, and knows 
by heart the song of Alexander. I perceive you will be 
no fit companion for an evening's sport. 

Hassan 

It is only for the torture that I speak: it is only for 
the woman that I implore. Say but one word: the sun 
will set so soon. 

Caliph 
{Angrily) If thou and Ishak, and Jafar and the Gov- 
ernors of all the provinces were prostrate with supplica- 
tion before me, I would not spare her one caress of 
Masrur's black hand. 

Hassan 

{Springing to his feet and making at the Caliph) 
Hideous tyrant, torturer from Hell ! 



148 HASSAN ACT V 

Caliph 
{Coolly, as Guards seize Hassan) You surprise 
me. Since when have confectioners become so tigerish 
in their deportment? 

Hassan 

{Terrified) What have I said! What have I done! 

Caliph 
There speaks the old confectioner again. 

Hassan 
I am not ashamed to be a confectioner, but I am 
ashamed to be a coward. 

Caliph 
Do not despair, good Hassan. You would not take 
my warning: you have left the Garden of Art for the 
Palace of Action: you have troubled your head with the 
tyranny of princes, and the wind of complication is blow- 
ing through your shirt. You will forfeit your house 
and be banished from the Garden, for you are not fit to 
be the friend of kings. But Lor the rest, since you did 
me great service the other night, go in peace, and all the 
confectionery of the Palace shall be ordered at your shop. 

Hassan 
Master, for this mercy I thank you humbly. 

Caliph 
For nothing — for nothing ! I make allowance for 
the purple thread of madness woven in the camel-cloth 



ACT V HASSAN 149 

of your character. I know your head is affected by a 
caloric afternoon. Indeed, I sympathize with the interest 
you have shown as to the fate of Pervaneh and Rafi, and 
as a mark of favour I offer you a place among the 
spectators of their execution. 

Hassan 
Ah, no, no! — that I could never bear to see! 

Caliph 
Moreover, as a special token of my esteem, I will not 
send you to the execution — I will bring the execution here, 
and have it held in your honour. You dreamt that your 
walls were sweating blood. I will fulfil the prophecy 
implied and make the dream come true. 

Hassan 

I shall never sleep again ! 

Caliph 

{To Attendant) Take my ring; go to the pos- 
tern gate, intercept the procession of Protracted Death, 
and bid Masrur bring his prisoners to this pavilion and 
slay them on the carpet he shall find within the walls. 

Hassan 
Master! Master! Is it not enough? I must go 
back to my trade and the filth of the Bazaar: I must be 
a poor man again and the fool of poor men. "Look at 
Hassan," men will say, "he has had his day of greatness: 
look at that greasy person: he has been clothed in gold: 
let us therefore go and insult the man who was once the 



150 HASSAN ACT V 

Caliph's friend: let us draw moral lessons from him on 
the mutability of human affairs." But I, disregarding 
their jeers and insolent compassion, wrapping my body 
in my cloak and my soul in contemplation, would have 
remembered my day of pride, this Garden of Great 
Peace, this Fountain of Charm, this Pavilion of Beati- 
tude: I would have recollected that I once had talked 
with Poets of the art of poetry, and owned slaves as 
pretty as their names. Preserve, preserve for me, 
Master of the World, this palmgrove of memory in the 
desert of my affliction. Defile not this happy place with 
blood. Let not the trees that heard thee but yesterday 
call me Friend bow their heads beneath the wind of 
anguish: let not the threshold which I have crossed 
blossom out with blood! Spare me, spare me from 
hearing that which will haunt me for ever and for ever — 
the moan of that white woman! 

Caliph 
{To Guards) Do not release him till the end. See 
that he keeps his eyes well opened, and feasts them 
to the fill. 

(Exit Caliph and train.) 
{The song of the Muezzin is heard, "La Allah 
ilia Allah," etc.) 

Hassan 
The sun has set. Guards, oh Guards! {No anstver) 
It is the hour of prayer, do you not pray? I have 
still a little treasure. (No answer from the Guards) 
Are you dumb? (Guards nod) But why are you 
not deaf? (Guards point to their tongues) Ah — 



ACT V HASSAN 151 

your tongues have been torn out! (Guards point to 
window of the pavilion) What do you point at? . . . 
Ah, Yasmin! 

Yasmin 
I have seen and heard behind the lattice. Hassan 
has fallen from power and favour. 

Hassan 
(Crazily) Ah, good, very good, surpassing good! 
You are at the window — I am in the street. This 
is a reflection of that. As swans go double in a river, 
so do events come drifting down our lives. Again, 
again ! 

Bow down thy head, burning bright for one night or the 

other niglit 
Will come the Gardener in white, and gathered flowers are 

dead, Yasmin! 

Come now, a sweet lie first, Yasmin: sing a little how 
you love me. Show me your beauty limb by limb — 
then bring, ah, bring your new lover — mock my moon- 
touched verses and call me the fool, the old fool, the 
weary fool I am! 

Yasmin 
I will not yet call Hassan a fool. Hassan has fallen 
from power, but he need not fall from riches. The 
Palace Confectioner, Hassan, may still become the rich- 
est merchant in Bagdad. 

Hassan 

Thou harlot, thou harlot, thou harlot! 



152 HASSAN ACT V 

Yasmin 
Why art thou angry? In what have I insulted thee? 

Hassan 
Oh, if it were thou about to suffer! If it were thou! 

Yasmin 
{Staring across the garden and forgetting Hassan) 
At last, at last! — the Procession of Protracted Death! 
I shall see it all! 

{A deep red afterglow illumines the back of 
the garden. Across the garden towards the 
door of the pavilion moves in black sil- 
houettes the Procession of Protracted Death, 
of which the order is this: 

Masrur, naked, with his scimitar. 
Four assistant torturers in black holding 

steel implements. 
Two men in armour bearing a lighted 
brazier slung between them on a pole. 
Tivo men bearing a monstrous wheel. 
Four men carrying the rack. 
A man with a hammer and a whip. 
Pervaneh and Rafi, half naked, pulling 
a cart that bears their coffins: their 
legs drag great chains. 
Behind each of them walks a soldier with 

uplifted sword. 
Masrur knocks at the door of the Pavil- 
ion: the Slaves open and flee in terror at 
the sight. The light of the brazier glotvs 
through the ivindows. The Soldiers who 



ACT V HASSAN 153 

guard Pervaneh and Rafi unhook the 
chains that chain them to the cart, and plac- 
ing their hands on the necks of the prisoners 
push them in. The four Slaves of the 
house then appear under the guidance of the 
man ivith the whip and lift in the coffins. 
Lastly, Hassan is taken by his tivo Guards 
and forced to enter. The stage grows 
absolutely dark, save for the shining of the 
light from the windows. In the silence 
rises the splashing of the fountain and the 
whirring and whirling of a ivheel. The 
sounds blend and grow unendurably insis- 
tent, and with them music begins to play 
softly. A cry of pain is half smothered by 
the violins. At last the silver light of the 
moon floods the garden. Hassan, thrust forth 
by his Guards, appears at the door of the pa- 
vilion. His face is white and haggard: he 
totters a few steps and finally falls in a 
faint in the shadow of the fountain. The 
coffins are brought out, nailed down, and 
placed in the cart. The Soldiers pull the 
cart in place of the prisoners, and what 
remains of the procession departs in reverse 
order. Masrur only has lingered by the 
door. Yasmin is clutching at his arm.) 

Yasmin 
Masrur — thou dark Masrur! 

Masrur 
Allah — the woman! 



154 HASSAN ACT V 

Yasmin 
How you smell of blood! 

Masrur 
And you of roses. 

Yasmin 
I laughed to see them writhe — I laughed, I laughed, 
as I watched behind the curtain. Why did you drink 
his veins? 

Masrur 
A vow, 

Yasmin 
Will you not drink mine also? 

Masrur 
Shall I put my arms around you? 

Yasmin 
Your arms are walls of black and shining stone. 
Your breast is the castle of the night. 

Masrur 
Little white moth, I will crush you to my heart. 

Yasmin 
{With a sudden cry of terror, struggling from his 
embrace a moment after) Ah, let me go. Do you 
hear them? . . . Do you hear them? . . . 



ACT V HASSAN 155 

Masrur 
What is there to hear but the noises of the night? 

Yasmin 
(Springing away) The flowers are talking . . . the 
garden is alive. . . . {She falls.) 

Masrur 
{Stopping to carry her) She loves blood and is 
frightened of the moon. She is smooth and white. I 
will take her home. 

{Enter Ishak searching for Hassan.) 

ISHAK 

Hassan — where doth he lie? Hassan, oh Hassan. 
Thou hast broken that gentle heart, Haroun, and I have 
broken my lute: I play no more for thee. Ah, why 
did they not tell me sooner — I fear his reason may 
have fled before I find him : he may be wandering in the 
streets to-night like Death, and tearing at his eyes. 
Hassan, oh, Hassan! 

It is he: he lies just as I first saw him: beneath 
a fountain, face toward the moon. His life is rhyming 
like a song: it harks back to the old refrain. Is life 
a mirror wherein events show double? 

Hassan 

{Half waking from his swoon) Swans that drift 
into the mist. ... 

ISHAK 
{Bending over him to raise him) Friend, I am glad 



156 HASSAN ACT V 

to hear thy voice. Rise, rise, thou art in a pitiable 
case. 

Hassan 

(Faintly) Let me lie. . . . This place is quiet, 
and the earth smells cool. May I never rise till they 
lift me aboard my coffin, and I'll go a sailing down 
the river and out to sea. 

ISHAK 

You are alive — no one will hurt you: hold to your 
reason and fight despair. 

Hassan 

And in that sea are no red fish. . . . 

ISHAK 

Come: rise: be brave: I know you have suffered. 

Hassan 
She was brave. Ah, her hands, her hands! 

ISHAK 

Do not tell me that tale. 

Hassan 

You are a poet. They cut off her lover's head and 
poured the blood upon her eyes! 

ISHAK 

Be silent. You are full of devils. I tell you, it 
is not true. Stop dreaming: look into my eyes: listen! • 



ACT V HASSAN 157 

{Bells are heard without the garden.) 
You hear? The camels are being driven to the gate 
of the moon. At midnight starts the great summer 
caravan for the cities of the Far North East, divine 
Bokhara and happy Samarcand. It is a desert path 
as yellow as the bright sea-shore: therefore the Pilgrims 
call it The Golden Journey. 

Hassan 

And what of that to you or me, your Golden Journey 
to Samarcand? 

ISHAK 

I am leaving this city of slaves, this Bagdad of 
fornication. I have broken my lute and will write no 
more qasidahs in praise of the generosity of kings. 
I will try the barren road, and listen for the voice of 
the emptiness of earth. And you shall walk beside 
me. 

Hassan 
I? 

ISHAK 

Rise, and confide to me once more the direction of 
your way. 

Hassan 
{Rising with Ishak's aid) Why save me from a 
death desired? What am I to you or to any man 
living? Why would you force me like a fate to live? 



158 HASSAN ACT V 

ISHAK 
Because I am your friend, and need you. 

Hassan 
Oh, Ishak, singer of songs! 

ISHAK 

Prepare for travel. 

Hassan 
I have no possessions. 

Ishak 

pilgrim, true pilgrim! I have dinars of gold: 
we will furnish ourselves at the gate, and change these 
silks of indolence for tlie camel-hair of toil. But have 
you not one thing in your house to take — not one single 
thing? 

Hassan 

{With a great shudder) Within that door — nothing. 
But I have one old carpet that still lies in my shop. 
Its gentle flowers the negro has not defiled. And yet 
I dare not seek it. 

ISHAK 

1 will bring it you. You shall stretch it out 
upon the desert when you say your evening prayer, 
and it shall be a little meadow in tlie waste of sand. 

Hassan 
(Seizing Ishak in a sudden panic) Keep close to 
me: do not leave me! The night is growing wild! 



ACT V HASSAN 159 

ISHAK 

Hold to your reason! It is all stars and moon and 
crystal peace. 

Hassan 
The trees are moving without a wind . . . the flowers 
are talking . . . tlie stars are growing bigger. . . . 

ISHAK 

Be calm, there is nothing. 

{The fountain runs red.) 

Hassan 

The fountain — tlie fountain! 

ISHAK 

Oh! alas! it is pouring blood! Come away. 

Hassan 
The Garden is alive! 

ISHAK 

Come away: it is haunted! Come away: come away! 
Follow the bells! 

(Exeunt in terror.) 
(The Ghost of the Artist of the Fountain rises 
from the fountain itself in pale Byzantine 
robes.) 

Fountain Ghost 
The garden to the ghosts. Come forth, new brother 
and new sister. Come forth while enough of eartli's 



160 HASSAN ACT V 

heavy influence remains upon you — to speak and to 
be seen. Come forth, and those who are past shall 
dance with those that are to come. 

Ghost of Rafi 
{With the voice of Rafi, the clothes of Rafi, the 
broken fetters of Rafi, biU pale . . . as death) We 
are here, Shadow of the Fountain. 

Fountain Ghost 
Welcome, thou and thy white lady, to these . . . 
haunts. Wander at will. I have scared away the sons 
of flesh. 

Ghost of Rafi 
How were they scared, those two? 

Fountain Ghost 
When the water turned from white to red their faces 
turned from red to white. They ran! 

Ghost Hidden in the Trees 
Ha! ha! 

Ghost of Pervaneh 
Tell us, Man of the Fountain, what shall we do? 

Fountain Ghost 
Nothing: you are dead. 

Ghost of Pervaneh 
Shall we stay in this garden and be lovers still, and 
fly in the air and flit among the leaves? 



-? 



ACT V HASSAN 161 

Fountain Ghost 
As long as you remember what you suffered, you 
will stay near the house where your blood was shed. 

Ghost of Pervaneh 
We will remember that ten thousand years. 

Fountain Ghost 
You have forgotten you are a Spirit. The memories 
of the dead are thinner than their dreams. 

Ghost of Pervaneh 
But you stay here, by the fountain. 

Fountain Ghost 
I created this fountain: what have you created in 
the world? 

Ghost of Pervaneh 
Nothing but the story of our lives. 

Fountain Ghost 
That will not save you. You were spiritual even in 
life. I see it by the great shadows of your eyes. But I 
cared only for the earth. I loved the veins of the leaves, 
the shapes of crawling beasts, the puddle in the 
road, the feel of wood and stone. I knew the shapes 
of things so well that my sculpture was the best in all 
the world. Therefore my spirit is still heavy with mem- 
ories of earth and I stay in the world I love. Do I 
desire to see the back of the moon? 



162 HASSAN ACT V 

Ghost of Pervaneh 
May not we stay also? May I not touch the shadow 
of his lips and hear the whisper of his love? Shall 
we be driven from here, Man of the Fountain? 

Fountain Ghost 
How do I know? Can I foresee? 

Ghost of Pervaneh 
Thou, too, dost not foresee. But what of Paradise, 
what of Infinity — what of the stars, and what of us? 

Fountain Ghost 
I know no more than you. 

Ghost of Pervaneh 
Is the secret secret still, and this existence darker 
than the last? 

Fountain Ghost 
Didst thou hope for a revelation? Why should the 
dead be wiser than the living? The dead know only 
this — that it was better to be alive. 

Ghost of Pervaneh 
But we shall feel no more pain — Oh, no more pain, 
Rafi! 

Fountain Ghost 
But you will feel so cold. 

Ghost of Pervaneh 
With the fire of love within us? 



ACT V HASSAN 163 

Fountain Ghost 
You will forget when the wind blows. 

Ghost of Pervaneh 
Forget! Rafi, Rafi, shall we forget, Rafi? 

Ghost of Rafi 
{In a thin voice like an echo) Forget . . . Rafi . . . 

Fountain Ghost 
You will forget, when the great wind blows you 
asunder and you are borne on with ten million others 
like drops on a wave of air. 

Ghost of Pervaneh 
There is a faith in me that tells me I shall not 
forget my lover though God forget the world. And 
where shall the wind take us? 

Fountain Ghost 
What do I know, or they? I only know it rushes. 

Ghost of Pervaneh 
How do you know about the wind? 

Fountain Ghost 
Because it blows through the garden and drives the 
souls together. 

Ghost of Pervaneh 
What souls? 



164 HASSAN ACT V 

Fountain Ghost 
The souls of the unborn children that live in the 
flowers. 

Ghost of Pervaneh 
And how do you know about the passage of ten 
million souls? 

Fountain Ghost 
They pass like a comet across the midnight skies. 

Ghost of Pervaneh 
Phantoms shall not make me fear. But what of 
Justice and Punishment and Reason and Desire? What 
of the Lover in the Garden of Peace? 

Fountain Ghost 
Ask of the wind. 

Ghost of Pervaneh 
I shall be answered: I know that in the end I shall 
find the Lover in the Garden of Peace. 

Voices 
And what of Life? 

Ghost of Pervaneh 
Who asks, What of Life? 

Fountain Ghost 
The spirits of those who will soon be born. 



ACT V HASSAN 165 

Voices 
We have left our flowers. We know we shall soon 
be born. What of Life, dead? 

Ghost of Pervaneh 
{With a great cry) Why, Life ... is sweet, my 
children ! 

{The leaves of the trees begin to rustle.) 

Fountain Ghost i 

Listen to the trees. 

Ghost of Pervaneh 
Is it coming? 

Fountain Ghost 
It is the wind. I must go down into the earth. 

{The Fountain Ghost vanishes.) 

Ghost of Pervaneh 
Ah, I am cold — I am cold — beloved! 

Ghost of Rafi 

{Scarce visible and very faint) Cold . . . cold. 

Ghost of Pervaneh 
Speak to me, speak to me, Rafi. 

Ghost of Rafi 
Rafi — Rafi — who was Rafi? 

Ghost of Pervaneh 
Speak to thy love — thy love — thy love. 



166 HASSAN ACT V 

Ghost of Rafi 
Cold . . . cold . . . cold. 

{The wind sweeps the Ghosts out of the 
garden, seeming also to ring more wildly the 
bells of the Caravan.) 

Scene II 

At the Gate of the Moon, Bagdad. Blazing moonlight. 
Merchants, Camel-Drivers and their beasts. 
Pilgrims, Jews, Women, all manner of people. 
By the barred gate stands the Watchman with a 
great key. Among the pilgrims Hassan and Ishak 
in the robes of pilgrims. 

The Merchants 

(Together) 
Away, for we are ready to a man! 

Our camels sniff the evening and are glad. 
Lead on, Master of the Caravan, 

Lead on the Merchant-Princes of Bagdad. 

The Chief Draper 
Have we not Indian carpets dark as wine, 

Turbans and sashes, gowns and bows and veils, 
And broideries of intricate design, 

And printed hangings in enormous bales? 

The Chief Grocer 
We have rose-candy, we have spikenard, 

Mastic and terebinth and oil and spice. 
And such sweet jams meticulously jarred 

As God's Own Prophet eats in Paradise. 



ACT V HASSAN 167 

The Principal Jews 
And we have manuscripts in peacock styles 

By Ali of Damascus: we have swords 
Engraved with storks and apes and crocodiles, 

And heavy beaten necklaces for lords. 

The Master of the Caravan 
But you are nothing but a lot of Jews. 

Principal Jew 
Sir, even dogs have daylight, and we pay. 

Master of the Caravan 
But who are ye in rags and rotten shoes, 
You dirty-bearded, blocking up the way? 

ISHAK 

We are the Pilgrims, master; we shall go 

Always a little further: it may be 
Beyond that last blue mountain barred with snow 

Across that angry or that glimmering sea. 

White on a thronei or guarded in a cave 
There lives a prophet who can imderstand 

Why men were born: but surely we are brave, 
Who take the Golden Road to Samarkand. 

The Chief Merchant 
We gnaw the nail of hurry. Master, away ! 

One of the Women 
turn your eyes to where your children stand. 
Is not Bagdad the beautiful? 0, stay! 



168 HASSAN ACT V 

Merchants 
{In chorus) 
We take the Golden Road to Samarkand. 

An Old Man 
Have you not girls and garlands in your homes, 
Eunuchs and Syrian boys at your command? 
Seek not excess: God hateth him who roams ! 

Merchants 
{In chorus.) 
We take the Golden Road to Samarkand. 

Hassan 
Sweet to ride forth at evening from the wells, 

When shadows pass gigantic on the sand, 
And softly through the silence beat the bells 

Along the Golden Road to Samarkand. 

Ishak 

We travel not for trafiScking alone; 

By hotter winds our fiery hearts are fanned: 
For lust of knowing what should not be known, 

We take the Golden Road to Samarkand. 

Master of the Caravan 
Open the gate, watchman of the night ! 

The Watchman 
Ho, travellers, I open. For what land 
Leave you the dim-moon city of delight? 



ACT V HASSAN 169 

Merchants 
{With a shout) 

We take the Golden Road to Samarkand ! 

(The Caravan passes through the gate.) 

Watchman 
{Consoling the women) 
What would ye, ladies? It was ever thus. 
Men are unwise and curiously planned. 

A Woman 
They have their dreams, and do not think of us. 
{The Watchman closes the gate.) 
Voices of the Caravan 
{In the distance singing) 

We take the Golden Road to Samarkand. 

Curtain 



The End 



VI ry 



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